


Case Six: Harriet Hook

by MelyndaR



Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [7]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), Disney - All Media Types, Peter Pan (1953)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, M/M, Minor Character Death, Past Child Abuse, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect, the "underage" is a fade to black between two seventeen year olds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 33
Words: 37,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28596318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: Jordan caught her staring, and a strange look passed over her face. Harriet didn’t so much as blink, wouldn’t be ashamed of admiring beauty, and for one heart-stopping second, when Jordan shifted, she thought she was going to kiss her. Harriet’s hands itched to cup the girl’s face and initiate the kiss herself.On the Isle she would have.But this wasn’t the Isle, and here what Harriet wanted to do would cast a bad light over the VKs.And she couldn’t allow herself to do anything that might hurt the others’ chances of coming to this safer place.
Relationships: Ben & Gil (Disney: Descendants), Chad Charming/Li Lonnie, Gil/Harry Hook/Uma, Harriet Hook & Harry Hook, Harriet Hook/Jordan, Harry Hook/Uma, Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854097
Comments: 34
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I'm going to be really honest here for a second. I usually don't post stories as I write them, for a number of reasons related to creative flow and motivation and stuff like that, but this one... I'm really nervous about this story because I /so/ want to get it right, to do it justice.  
> I've written F/F and M/M before, but usually it's within polyamorous relationships, and this isn't going to be that. I know I've kind of made illusions to homophobia in Auradon in past stories, and that's been to elude to this story. For me, in looking at Auradon and it's very "prince, princess, and their 2.5 kids" front, I saw an opportunity to, in my own mind, address some of the internal struggles that I'm going through right now in my own life. While I get that F/F and M/M is literally not even something worth blinking at in fandom, this story in particular has become something that I really want to, as I said, do justice and write well. Probably more for me than for you guys, but here you have it nonetheless.  
> All of which I say to say that I've decided to post this story as I write it because I know that's the best way to get feedback from you guys, and I really, really want feedback from you guys on this one - even more than usual. ;)  
> Thanks in advance, guys! Enjoy!
> 
> Also, as a nice, normal note, this story starts at the same time as Uma's story does, and covers some of the same events from a different point of view.

“Evening, Cap’n!”

The jovial call drew Harriet Hook’s attention from where she’d been helping Squirmy Smee with his homework, sitting together on the deck of her ship, The Madelina, up to the boy’s father, Mr. Smee.

Adriel Stabbington called belatedly from the crow’s nest, “Man aboard,” as Squirmy abandoned his homework to run to his father, throwing his thin arms around his aging dad’s middle.

From where she was toying with the helm, CJ muttered something unrepeatable about Adriel’s incompetence as Sammy Smee bounded up from belowdecks, calling, “Dad, you came! We didn’t think you would tonight.”

The oldest Smee boy was right; it was getting a little late in the day for one of Mr. Smee’s almost-daily visits, but Harriet didn’t even consider begrudging him as Squeaky Smee came at Sammy’s heels to throw his arms around Squirmy and Mr. Smee all at once.

“I’m sorry, boys,” Mr. Smee said, looking like he meant it as he patted each one of his boys’ heads in turn. “I got stopped by someone important on my way here tonight.”

“Who was it?” Sammy asked predictably.

“Let me talk to the cap’n first, alright, boys, then I’ll tell you all about it,” Mr. Smee promised, disentangling himself from his children – not an easy task when it came to the twins.

Her smile caught somewhere in its perpetual state between fondness and exasperation, Harriet helped him get free by prying Squeaky’s arms from around his father. When Sammy ushered his younger brothers away, Mr. Smee shot Harriet a serious look – not at all his usual expression – that made her nerves go on higher alert as he asked under his breath, “Can I talk t’ ye privately?”

“Of course,” Harriet murmured, leading him to the one private place on this whole ship – her own quarters. Last time he’d wanted to talk to her privately, she’d ended up with his sons living on the Madeline with her full-time, but that was the least she could do for the ailing man who’d been more of a father to her than her biological father had been. “Is there something I can do for you?” she asked once they were shut in alone together.

“Actually,” he drew in a deep breath, taking three scrolls from the waistband of his tattered pants as he said, “It’s more that I wanted to let you know what’s being done for us. For my boys.” He held out the scrolls to her – shiny, clean things that clearly hadn’t spent much time on the Isle yet – and she pulled one from his hand as he bid her, “Go on, read it.”

Glancing carefully over his dear, drawn face, Harriet unrolled the scroll, reading aloud, “His Royal Majesty, King Benjamin of Auradon, and his councilor, Mrs. Anita Radcliffe of Little London, hereby extend an invitation to you, Sammy Smee, to reside in mainland Auradon, effe…” There was more to the letter, but Harriet allowed herself to trail off as she met Mr. Smee’s eyes, immediately understanding what the gist of the missive would be. “They’ve found a place for Sammy in the mainland?”

Mr. Smee nodded, holding up the other two scrolls as he said, “And these are for the twins. I answered for ‘em, of course. Said they’d go. Of course, they ought to. They’ll, uh, be back for the boys next week, they said, since we’re – I’m – willing to send ‘em. It just seemed right that you should be the first to know, though.”

They regarded each other carefully, and Harriet cleared her throat after a moment, handing him Sammy’s scroll as she glanced away, very purposefully not commenting on his dewy eyes or reddening face. “Thank you for telling me, Mr. Smee.”

“No…” he caught her gaze again, sweeping his beanie off his head to twist it in his hands. “Thank _you_ for taking care of my boys. I don’t know what I would’ve done with them the past couple months if you hadn’t been able to take them aboard the Madelina for me.”

“They’ve been a joy,” Harriet murmured honestly. An added burden, worry, and responsibility, just as much as every member of her crew was to her, but she didn’t mind when she’d decided years ago that her life would belong to her ragtag crew.

Mr. Smee looked around the cramped captain’s quarters like he was looking for something else to say, and he told her quietly, “You’re doing the right thing here, Harriet. A better man than your pa would be proud o’ ya.”

Harriet smiled softly, pointing to the scrolls in his hands as she said, “And you’re doing the right thing there.”

Mr. Smee opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, someone rapped on the door to Harriet’s quarters, and Squirmy called out from the other side, “Dad?”

Harriet and Mr. Smee shared an exasperated smile before Harriet said, “You’d better go talk to them. Tell them what’s going on; they’ll be excited, I’m sure.”

* * *

As it turned out, the Smee boys weren’t the only ones with a reason to be excited, because they weren’t the only ones going to the mainland.

Though they didn’t live aboard the Madelina full-time, Mr. Smee had been gone for maybe ten minutes when Yzla and Hermie Bing, two of Harriet’s part-time overnighters, ran aboard in a fit of gleeful shrieks and girlish laughter.

“Everything okay over there?” Harriet asked with an amused smile as they came aboard, pulling Fawn Frollo’s thumb gently from her mouth – _she really was too old to still be sucking on it; Harriet was going to have to start tying her hand soon, if it came down to it_ – before she turned to look at the girls.

With gleeful eyes, the girls extended twin scrolls out towards Harriet, squealing, “We’re going to _Auradon_!”

Loathe to put a damper on their excitement, Harriet had dutifully beamed and celebrated with the Yzla and Hermie while ignoring the fury that passed over CJ’s face before she made her way up to the crow’s nest, shoving Adriel out so that the youngest Hook could sulk up there alone.

Now that all nine of her wards were settled in for the night – eight of them asleep belowdecks, CJ still keeping watch in the crow’s nest that she’d refused to be dislodged from – and Harriet was alone for the night, she sank heavily down onto her thin mattress with a tired sigh. Already, she couldn’t help but wonder, _what was she going to do without half her crew?_


	2. Chapter 2

A board creaked outside Harriet’s quarters, and Harriet stiffened, reaching automatically for the sword that was leaning against the wall beside her pillow before she remembered that CJ was the one keeping watch tonight. With the rest of her crewmembers, she might’ve had to worry about giving them the night watch, but, no matter CJ’s mood, when she was the one on watch, Harriet at least knew that she could rest and get a good night’s sleep.

That’s why she was so startled when the door to her quarters was eased open, the ramshackle hinges scraping in protest. The shadow in the doorway registered only as “too tall to be one of her kids,” and Harriet sprang onto her feet, sword in hand before she’d given it conscious thought, and pressed the tip of the blade warningly against the intruder’s throat.

“I yield, captain!” a familiar voice snapped.

Gasping in relief, Harriet lowered her sword, allowing the “intruder” to step into the flickering candlelight in her quarters while CJ howled with laughter up in the crow’s nest. Making a mental note to yell at her sister later, Harriet breathed, “Cai.”

“The one and only,” Cai replied with a flourishing bow before she stepped into Harriet’s room and shut the door. Arching a disapproving eyebrow at the youngest Hook’s intentional silence, she asked, “CJ in a mood or something?”

“Isn’t she always?” Harriet muttered, putting her sword back where it belonged.

“Well, anyway,” Cai said dismissively, dropping onto Harriet’s bed like she belonged there – and sometimes, on the nights when Harriet was lucky, she did – “I have news.”

Dragging a hand over her face, Harriet asked tiredly, “Are _you_ going to the mainland?”

“Me?” Cai snorted. “No, definitely not. But twenty-three kids are.”

Harriet dropped to sit beside Cai, repeating disbelievingly, “Twenty-three?”

Cai nodded.

“And you couldn’t come tell me that before nine thirty?” Harriet asked.

Cai shrugged. “We all just got back to the Lost Revenge and got our facts straight, so… no, I couldn’t until now.” Faking irritation, she added, “You’re lucky I even came to tell you at all.”

“Is there anything _else_ you have to tell me?” Harriet queried, deciding that she didn’t really want to talk about the kids leaving for Auradon when the whole mess of it had already thrown her crew and her evening into chaos. Mostly because of CJ, but still…

“Nope,” Cai answered flippantly.

“And yet you’re still here.” She allowed the beginnings of a smile onto her face as she probed Cai.

“Weird, right?”

“So, you must be here for something else. In fact, I bet you volunteered to play messenger just as an excuse to come over here.”

“Oh, I totally did,” Cai agreed, reaching out to toy with one of the buttons on Harriet’s vest.

“And what else is it that you want?” Harriet asked, leaning closer to Cai. _Given the chance, there were other things she could do besides sleep, since she knew that CJ had the night watch covered._

Cai leaned in as if to kiss her, and when she shoved Harriet back onto the bed instead, Harriet chuckled, grabbing Cai’s waist to make sure that she came down with her.

 _She kind of hated the number of layers her pirate aesthetic required,_ Harriet decided, slipping her vest off her shoulders as Cai got it unbuttoned while kissing her. She pulled Cai’s sword sheath over her head, reaching behind her to put it beside Harriet’s own sword—

“Harriet?” Fawn knocked hesitantly on Harriet’s door, her voice trembling.

Cai pulled away from Harriet, disgust flashing across her face as she muttered quietly, “You’re kidding.”

Harriet stifled a sigh, pressing a finger to her lips before she pointed to the corner, effectively telling Cai to shut up and hide for a second. Still grumbling under her breath, Cai crawled off Harriet’s lap and went to stand where Harriet had indicated.

Harriet went to open her bedroom door, standing so that Fawn couldn’t open the door further. CJ was laughing meanly up in the crow’s nest once again, fully aware of what was happening, as Harriet asked Fawn tiredly, “What is it, honey?”

In the candlelight coming from her quarters, Harriet caught tears glittering in the little girl’s eyes as she looked up at Harriet and asked painfully, “Are all my friends going to leave me?”

 _Oh, gods…_ Harriet felt the innocent question like a punch to the gut, faltering for a second before she crouched down to Fawn’s level. Glancing behind her bedroom door to where Cai was waiting, knowing the other girl was watching her through the crack at the doorjamb, Harriet scooped Fawn into her arms, deciding that Cai was just going to have to wait for another night. “Let’s get you back to bed, Fawn.”

The five-year-old nestled into Harriet’s arms as Harriet carried her back belowdecks. She’d left a single candle burning down here as a sort of nightlight for the comfort of Fawn and the Smee twins, but now she was grateful for it herself as she crept through the crowded space. There were only three bunkbeds, a woodburning stove, and a table down here, but it wasn’t a big room, and there were more opportunities for tripping and stubbing toes than Harriet necessarily liked, especially as she carried Fawn to her bunk at the back of the room.

She was unsurprised to see that most of the kids were doubling up in the beds – the Stabbington cousins, the Smee twins, and Hermie and Yzla all sleeping two to a bunk, while Sammy slept above his brothers. CJ’s bunk was left wide open for her, should the uncontested alpha of Harriet’s crew decide she wanted to come to bed. Harriet deposited Fern gently in the bunk underneath CJ’s, tucking her in and brushing her mousey hair out of her eyes.

“Go back to sleep, honey; you’ll feel better in the morning,” she lied softly.

Fawn grabbed Harriet’s wrist as she turned away, whispering, “Can you stay with me? Everybody else has somebody with them.”

That wasn’t quite true, but it was close enough in Fawn’s mind – just like everything else the little girl had said was “close enough” to the truth. Not _everyone_ was leaving, but half the crew was, and for a little girl who’d had enough trouble adjusting to her recent move from the TDF to the Madelina, the possibility of even more change probably was scary.

Looking down at Fawn’s drawn face and giving up on the idea of making it back to Cai before the other girl gave up on her, Harriet unlaced her boots and laid down beside Fawn. “Sleep, honey,” she said again, pressing a kiss to Fawn’s forehead as she promised, “I’m not going anywhere until you’re fast asleep, okay?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, also! If anybody cares about my weird continuous playlist, here's the songs for this story:  
> Born This Way - Lady Gaga  
> Girls Like Girls - Hayley Kiyoko (The first two are meant to represent the Isle's outlook on LGBT+)  
> I Think I Fell In Love Today - Kelsea Ballerini (my self-obligated Kelsea Ballerini song for this story)  
> You Need To Calm Down - Taylor Swift (meant to represent the outlook of Auradon's LGBT+ AKs towards their country)  
> Genie in a Bottle - Dove Cameron  
> Kiss the Girl - Descendants 2 cast remix  
> What About Us - P!nk (yes, again, because I can)  
> The Village - Wrabel
> 
> If anybody has any recommendations of better F/F songs, I'm all ears, by the way!

Harriet kept her word, staying crowded into Fawn’s bunk and dozing lightly until she heard the child’s soft snoring against her shoulder. Then she pulled off her socks, picked up her boots, and padded back towards her quarters barefoot, contenting herself with the idea of getting some real sleep now that she assumed Cai had left for the night.

“She’s still in there,” CJ informed her, finally deciding to be helpful as Harriet emerged topside.

Still irritated with CJ, Harriet told herself she was bigger than flipping her sister off for fun as she went back into her quarters. Like CJ had said, Cai was still there, laying on her back in the bed and staring up at the ceiling.

“I didn’t expect you to stay,” Harriet admitted, dropping her boots by the door as she closed herself in with Cai.

“I didn’t get what I came for yet,” Cai explained simply, sitting up and pulling Harriet towards her as she added, “The getting of which is going to be _much_ easier once half those rug rats belowdecks are gone to Boreadon.”

Harriet shook her head, surprising even herself with how quickly she objected, “Don’t talk about them like that.”

She’d surprised Cai, too, she could tell by the way the Hun squinted at her in the orange light before she offered, “Only half your kids are leaving, right? You’ll still have plenty of responsibility to keep you here.” Harriet smiled falteringly – _Cai was right about that_ – and allowed the other girl to pull her into her lap. She kissed Harriet’s jaw, asking teasingly, “You forgive me, captain?”

Harriet turned her head to kiss Cai, murmuring, “I guess – as long as I get what you came here for.”

Cai grinned against the kiss, and this time when she guided them onto their backs on the bed, they were left alone to do what they wanted.

* * *

The next morning, Cai was long gone when Harriet woke up with the sunrise, as she always was. As they both needed her to be. For her own reasons, Cai wasn’t the type for commitment and any real relationships, and Harriet just didn’t have enough time for herself to even consider such a thing.

 _Besides,_ Harriet reminded herself as she laced up her boots and went to make breakfast on the stove belowdecks. _She didn’t really like Cai on an emotional level, and she was pretty sure she didn’t_ actually _trust Cai to be around her little ones in the light of day; she got too irritated with them too easily. Nah, friends with benefits was definitely a better fit for them, and in a place as rough as the Isle, she would be wise to settle for letting that be good enough._

After all, she was lucky enough that Cai had stuck around last night and waited for her to put Fawn to bed.

* * *

After the passing of a perfectly mundane morning, Gil Legume and his cousin, Le Fou Deux boarded the Madelina after lunch, giving Harriet money that the Lost Revenge crew had taken off Auradonian couriers, as well as more information that Cai had likely been sent to give her the night before.

She had known that twenty-three kids were leaving the Isle in all, but Gil and Le Fou gave her what names they’d managed to compile, and she started to get worried. It wasn’t surprising that Carlos was bringing his old friends to Auradon, or that Jay was inviting half his old street gang, but the more names she heard, the more worried Harriet got for Gil’s sister, Blanche.

Noting the stormy look growing on CJ’s face again at the conversation the teenagers were having, Harriet shoved some of their recently acquired money in her sister’s direction, ordering her and Sammy to go on a grocery run before she could really start sulking. With two of her kids gone, she turned to her visitors and asked, “Can you guys watch my kids for a while? I have an idea, and I wanna go talk to Blanche.”

“Can I come with you?” Gil asked instantly, even as Le Fou answered, “Sure.”

Harriet nodded at Gil, saying, “Thanks, Le Fou,” over her shoulder as she headed off her ship with Gil at her heels.

“Do we know how she is?” Harriet asked once they were alone… or as alone as anyone ever got on the bustling pier.

She meant Blanche, and Gil knew it, shaking his head before he glared daggers at one of Hook’s beady-eyed pirates who was greedily eying Harriet’s sword. Harriet put her hand on its hilt for a couple reasons as he said, “No, I haven’t seen her since they sent out the scrolls.”

“ _Every_ one of her kids but Grayson?” Harriet checked, and when Gil nodded, muttering, “Sounds like it,” Harriet whistled under her breath. _She couldn’t imagine._ “This isn’t going to be good, is it?” she asked quietly, and Gil sighed, but otherwise didn’t answer.

 _It was a difficult situation,_ Harriet mused as they walked away from the pier in silence. Historically, Blanche didn’t do very well without her babies to give her a purpose, and Harriet understood that better than most, but it would be _great_ for the babies if they could grow up on the mainland. Good for the babies, bad for Blanche.

And maybe that was where Harriet’s idea could come in useful for everyone concerned…

When she and Gil got to the Three Drowned Fairies Pub, Harriet breezed right through the front of the establishment and into the kitchen with Gil at her heels.

“What are ya’ doin’?” demanded Milda, a fae with unnaturally red hair and a crooked nose – the head cook.

“Talking to Blanche,” Harriet called over her shoulder, already sweeping past Milda and into the dry goods pantry, opening the door at the back of the pantry and descending the dark, narrow staircase into the mines before Milda could give her trouble about it.

Not very many people could just wander around this fae pub at will, and while Harriet was usually one of a handful of exceptions, she didn’t feel like giving Milda time to give her grief over it today.

Hadie met her and Gil halfway between the staircase and the dugout where Blanche and her kids spent most of their time. “Whatever you think you’re here to talk about,” he informed her, having apparently heard her remark to Milda. “You don’t want to talk about today.”

“It’s not been a good day, huh?” Gil asked Hadie.

Hadie gave him a sharp look. “Haven’t you heard? They’re taking the kids away.”

“We know,” Harriet assured him. “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to Blanche about.”

Hadie arched his eyebrows at her. “Is that so?”

She nodded, waiting for him to let her and Gil pass by in the narrow hall.

Together, she and Gil could’ve easily taken him, but it would be better for everyone concerned to let Hadie come to that conclusion himself, and after a short stare-down, he shrugged, stepping aside, and gesturing back into the dark mines. “Be my guest, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”


	4. Chapter 4

Aware that it wasn’t a good sign if even Hadie was having trouble cheering Blanche, Harriet carried herself a little more carefully as she turned a corner in the mines and stepped into the circle of blue firelight that lit Blanche’s cozy underground hideout. Blanche was sitting by the firepit, holding her youngest newborn ward, Rosie, as she sang a soft lullaby – in French, Harriet suspected, because it wasn’t English – to a few spellbound toddlers that sat at her side.

“She looks fine,” Gil commented to Hadie.

“Maybe you’ll be lucky and it’s just me she’s blocking out today,” Hadie said dryly, speaking just as under his breath as Gil had. “She’s refusing to talk to anyone but the kids.”

 _Focusing on them while she could,_ Harriet didn’t say aloud. She stepped closer to the firepit herself, getting an idea of how it might be best for her to proceed as she informed Blanche, “I want to talk to you about Grayson.”

Blanche looked right at her and kept singing before she turned her gaze back to her kids when Grayson turned to Harriet at the sound of his name.

“Hey, buddy,” Harriet murmured, plucking him up from the ground and sitting with him in her lap on the hardpacked floor while she waited for Blanche to end her song.

Gil crouched behind Harriet, murmuring to his nephew with a soft smile, “That’s your grandma’s lullaby, Gray, you know it?”

“Huh,” Hadie said from somewhere behind Gil as Grayson reached for his uncle over Harriet’s shoulder.

When Harriet handed Grayson back to Gil, one of the other little ones – _Cressida,_ she thought her name was – was quick to crawl into the free space on Harriet’s lap. Harriet snuggled the toddler closer, listening to Blanche’s haunting song under the firelight.

Eventually Blanche sighed, dropping a kiss onto Rosie’s forehead before she muttered grudgingly, “You need something?”

Hadie made a disgruntled noise from the shadows, and Harriet bit back a smile before she answered Blanche, “I actually thought we might be able to offer each other something.”

“I have this,” Gil spoke up, shifting Grayson so that he could dig a bag of coins out of his pocket and hand it to his sister. “From the couriers last night, to help you with the little guys until…” he trailed off, watching Blanche’s face fall at the mere mention of what was to come.

“Until they’re all gone?” Blanche bit out.

“On to a better life on the mainland,” Harriet reminded her, summoning some of the gentleness into her tone that she’d used with Fawn the night before.

Blanche dropped the bag of coins onto the ground beside her, turning to Harriet with eyes that were just a little too purposefully blank as she asked, “What do _you_ have for me?”

“I have a proposition for you,” Harriet replied. “And before you just say ‘no,’ I think it’s a good idea that you should agree to.”

* * *

And in the end, Blanche did agree to what Harriet proposed. Not right away, but eventually, as things shifted over the next weeks – power, expectations, and responsibilities breaking up and changing hands and resettling – Blanche brought Grayson when she came to live on the Madelina with Harriet’s crew. Not that she was doing it for any of the reasons that Harriet had anticipated or even wanted, but she was doing it, and that was better than one girl and one toddler sequestered in a hole in the ground while Blanche tried to fight an uphill battle with her own depression.

Harriet knew from experience that CJ, the Stabbington cousins, and Fawn, with Grayson added to their ranks, would keep Blanche plenty busy. The only reason she was comfortable leaving Blanche actually in charge of her motley crew, though, was because Uma’s crew – with Gil now speaking _for_ Uma’s crew – had promised to work even more closely with Blanche than they had with Harriet.

So, when given the chance at the request of “His Royal Majesty, King Benjamin of Auradon, and his councilor, Mrs. Anita Radcliffe of Little London,” Harriet gave her crewmembers and Cai one last hug and ducked into a limousine that would take her to a new life on the mainland. A life where she, like Uma, fully intended to ensure that the rest of the VKs got the chance to join them on the mainland.

* * *

 _For people who were heading to such a nice place to be, though,_ Harriet thought as she surveyed the people she was sharing a limousine with, _none of them looked particularly happy._ Beside her, Harry was excited as he looked at the bridge whirring by outside their window, but he wouldn’t show it anywhere except his eyes, since Jay was sitting across from him and he wanted to appear tough.

And Jay, for one, clearly couldn’t care less that he was sitting across from the Hooks at the moment. Neither could Carlos De Vil, and the guy who’d come to the Isle with them – Harriet thought someone had called him Doug.

“What just happened?” Doug asked, throwing up his hands in frustration. “He was _right there._ Why did she not—”

“Doug,” Jay interrupted him with a warning flash of his eyes.

“What?” Doug snapped, and Harriet looked out the window, pretending that she didn’t understand Jay had stopped him because of hers and Harry’s presence. “What, Jay? What did I do wrong this time, or what can I do differently to—”

Jay shook his head, held up a hand to stem the other boy’s frustrated onslaught. “You and I both know you didn’t _do_ anything. She’s just not ready. She wants to be, for him, and because you want her to be, but she isn’t.”

“Then what can I do to help her become ready?” Doug asked, desperation flashing through his eyes as Harriet pieced together what they had to mean.

_Grayson. The boys had started towards Grayson, but Evie had stopped them at the last second… Had decided against letting Doug… meet Grayson? Was that what was going on here? If so, why did it matter? And did she actually care?_

“I think,” Jay was saying slowly. “That we may be at the point where no one can help her, not really, not unless it’s… like, professional help. She has to want it for herself, and you can’t make that decision for her.” Jay gave him one more firm look, bringing that conversation to a premature end as he added, “And that’s all there is to say about that.”

Doug sighed in frustration, and the rest of the short ride to the school passed in silence.


	5. Chapter 5

Once they had reached Auradon Prep and made it through the welcome wagon headed up by Fairy Godmother and a band that was more enthusiastic than they were harmonious, King Ben led everyone into the school with Mal on his arm. Doug met them in the entryway with a girl on either side of him, and Evie was quick to go to him, winding her arms around his neck with a smile.

“This is giving me some pretty great flashbacks,” she commented. Doug tried to smile at her, but it was clear to Harriet that he was still preoccupied with the conversation he and Jay had had on the way here, and Evie was quick to notice that he was upset, too. Her smile slipped as she asked, “Doug?”

Doug turned into her embrace, murmuring, “Let’s talk later, okay?”

“Okay,” Evie answered, worry flashing through her eyes as she took a step back from the boy that she was obviously… entangled with in some way.

Sensing the couple’s discomfort as much as anyone was, the girls with Doug shot them concerned looks, but one of them, a pretty girl in traditional Agrabahn dress with magenta streaks in her hair, stepped forward, rescuing them all from their discomfort as she changed the subject. “Welcome to Auradon Prep. I’m Jordan, daughter of the famed Genie of Agrabah and his wife, Delia, as well as an occasional assistant to the royal family of Lone Keep.”

“Hi,” Jay waved with a bright, dopey smile. “That’s me.”

Uma and Harry rolled their eyes in sync, but Harriet’s attention was caught by the way that Jordan rolled her eyes, too, shooting Jay a fond look as she continued, “Today, I am also an interim assistant to you two,” as she pointed between Harriet and Harry.

 _Auradon was taking on a new sort of charm already._ Harriet kept her thoughts to herself for the moment, though, giving Jordan an appreciative once-over as the other girl with Doug and Jordan – Jane – struck up a conversation with Dizzy and Evie. Dizzy and Evie eventually went one way, Carlos and Jane went another way, and seeing the way Carlos and Jane held hands as they left, Uma asked Jordan dryly, “Is everybody in love around here?”

Jordan shrugged, a dull spark passing through her eyes so quickly that Harriet almost thought she’d imagined it. “Not me, but mostly everybody else is to some extent.”

And _that_ response had apparently been Harry's cue to turn up the charm as he gave her his smoldering eye, asking, “Well, why not you, love?”

Jordan made a point of eying the way Harry was still holding Uma’s hand, clearly unimpressed with his advances as she replied, “You’re not my type, pirate.”

To Jordan’s credit, the “pirate” comment seemed more like a classification – and one that Harriet wouldn’t have denied, for that matter – than a slur, and Harry took it as such, too, his smirk turning more mischievous than flirtatious as Uma said with a sharp look in Harry’s direction, “Good.”

“On that lovely note,” Jordan took the conversation easily back under her control. “If you could follow me to the library.” She turned on her heel and started walking away, clearly just expecting Harriet and Harry to follow, so they did.

Jay came with them, and once they were out of the hearing range of everyone else, he began cautiously, “Um… as much as I hate it, there’s something we need to talk to you guys about.”

“How mysterious,” Harry hummed, walking alongside Harriet.

Jordan sighed, stopping them all in the hallway as she said, “He’s serious, guys. We need you to listen here.”

“Okay,” Harriet gave the Agrabahns a confused look, propping her hands on her hips as she gave Jordan her full attention, asking, “What is it?”

Jay and Jordan shared a look, but Jay gave a little bow, gesturing to Harriet and Harry as he effectively gave Jordan the floor. Jordan’s hands tightened around the sheaf of papers she was holding as she drew in a breath, beginning, “Okay. I know this is going to feel really way out of right-field and unfair, but Mal asked me to talk to you guys about Auradon’s stance on,” she glanced around, making sure they were alone in the hall before she finally got to her point. “Homosexuality, same-sex relationships, girls-like-girls and guys-like-guys, et cetera.”

Harriet and Harry both raised their eyebrows as Harriet asked slowly, not sure what the big deal was, “What about it?”

“Mainstream Auradon isn’t very fond of homosexuality,” Jordan said bluntly. “And Mal indicated that could be a problem for you two.”

“You mean because I’m gay,” Harriet returned Jordan’s bluntness for her own, the hands on her hips moving to cross over her chest. “And because Harry has a boyfriend.”

“Exactly,” Jordan replied, watching her carefully. “Because of that, we wanted you to be aware of how it would be received. Which is to say that it won’t be received well, especially amongst the royals that you’ll be rubbing elbows with here at Auradon Prep.”

“So, you just…” Harriet was shaking her head, struggling to wrap her mind around whatever stupid point they were trying to make. “You’re trying to tell me to change who I am, to tell Harry to forget about Gil?”

“I’m not saying _any_ of that, and I never would,” Jordan rushed to assure her.

“Not… exactly,” Jay said slowly.

Harriet turned to him, eyes flashing with anger as she pointed out, “But you’re not _not_ saying that.”

Jay held up his hands for peace, saying, “We’re telling you – especially you, Harriet – because we know that you came here for a lot of the same reasons Uma did with a lot of the same goals that Uma has – to bring over the other VKs. Is that right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Well, to do that, to make the right impression on people, you’re going to have to find a way to fit in to some degree, to make it seem like a good idea to bring over more kids _like_ you. Right?”

Though it grated on her nerves – _the idea of people caring about her sexuality was so_ stupid – Harriet understood where he was going with this, and she nodded. “We won’t do anything that would hurt the other VKs’ chances of coming over,” she promised, including Harry in her statement before she could cause a fuss over anything, and it was a promise she meant to keep. That didn’t mean she wanted to discuss it further, though, asking, “So, are we going to the library to meet these people, or what?”


	6. Chapter 6

“Of course,” Jordan agreed, shooting her a sympathetic look as they started walking again. “Something tells me you’re going to like little Danny, at least.”

 _That would be the first thing she’d really liked here,_ Harriet thought sourly, falling into step behind Jordan and watching the way her hips swayed as she walked – _because she could do that, and no one could stop her. But that meant that Danny would be the_ second _thing about Auradon that she’d given herself permission to like._

She decided it didn’t matter when Jordan stopped at the entrance to the library, informing Harriet and Harry, “This is our stop. You’ll find the Darlings in the back right corner at a study table.”

Still clearly perturbed, Harry brushed past them all and into the library with Harriet starting to follow him.

As she passed Jordan, the other girl tapped her wrist to get her attention, and Harriet tried not to actively glare at her as the genie said apologetically, “I really am sorry that your time here started with that conversation.”

“It’s not your fault,” Harriet muttered, turning to Jay as she pointed out, “But it is Mal’s. If she knows I’m gay, and she knows how Auradon feels about it… why even choose me?”

“For the same reasons that Ben chose Uma,” Jay answered evenly. “Ben is putting his money on Uma being able to make a difference in the acceptance of VKs over here, but Mal’s betting on you. She thinks you have a better chance of making a better impression once the school year starts, a more level head to deal with the things that this transition into Auradonian society brings.”

 _Compared to Uma…_ Harriet almost hated to say it, but he may have had a point – Mal may have had a point – and even if they didn’t, she could give it her best shot, for her crew, for the other VKs. She nodded, still struggling to wrap her mind around the bias they’d been talking about even as she said, “That makes sense. I can play nice,” _because that’s what the VKs left on the Isle needed her to do._ “But for now, I better go find Harry and introduce myself to…” she hesitated, realizing aloud, “Did you the _Darlings_?”

Jordan smiled encouragingly at her, confirming, “I did.”

“How screwed up is this place?” Harriet murmured under her breath as she walked in the direction Harry had gone.

She hadn’t meant for anyone to hear her rhetorical question, but Jordan called after her, “Oh, babe, so much more than you know.”

_“Babe?” Really?_

Harriet turned to look at Jordan in disbelief as she kept walking, backwards now, to the back of the library. Jordan, far enough in front of Jay that he couldn’t see her face, winked at Harriet before she turned and walked out of the library.

 _Yeah_ , Harriet admitted to herself. _Danny Darling was definitely going to be the_ second _thing she’d found to like in this screwed up state._

She heard Harry before she saw him and ended up following the sound of his voice to the corner of the library where Jordan had said they’d find the Darlings. The second he saw her, Harry sent her a look like she needed to rescue him, but she didn’t see why. At first glance, this family looked perfectly normal, if a little old-fashioned. They hadn’t even gotten comfortable enough to sit back down at the table, for pity’s sake!

Still, Harriet obligingly dove right in, smiling widely at the man of the family as she extended a hand to shake. “Sorry it took me a second,” she said smoothly. “I was talking to our guide. I’m Harriet Hook, and you’ve already met my brother, Harry.”

“Nice to meet you, Harriet,” the man replied warmly. “Like we were telling Harry, I’m Edward. This is my wife, Wendy, and our children, Jane and Daniel.”

There was the expected round of further handshaking before the Darlings and Harry sat down at the table, but Harriet didn’t. Not yet. She had noticed the way Danny was staring in horrified fascination at the sword-shaped industrial earring she was wearing, and she knelt beside his chair with a smile, tucking her hair behind her ear so he could get a better look as she asked, “What do you think?”

“That’s _cool_ ,” he enthused, reaching out to touch it.

“Daniel,” Jane warned, brushing his hand out of the air. “That’s rude.”

“It’s okay,” Harriet assured Jane with a wink and a smile. “Just be gentle, okay, Danny?”

The little boy suddenly scowled at her. “I’m Daniel now. Danny’s for babies.”

“Ah,” Harriet clicked her tongue, agreeing with a bitten-back smile, “I see. I’m sure you’re right. Sorry. _Daniel.”_

His insistence reminded her of Michael, who, in the months before he’d moved from her ship to Uma’s, had steadfastly refused to answer to “Mikey” any longer. In most cases, his full name now stuck, but Harriet would always think of him as “Mikey” whenever it came to the time he’d spent as a part her crew.

 _Daniel_ reached out and touched the hilt of the tiny sword, his little fingers feather-light against the fake silver as he asked worriedly, “Doesn’t it hurt to have a sword in your ear?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Harriet noticed Mr. and Mrs. Darling staring at her with much of the same shocked awe that Danny was regarding the earring with. “Oh,” she grinned when she understood why it had caught his attention so thoroughly. “No. It’s just jewelry; it’s not actually stabbing me. Look.”

“It’s _jewelry_?” he repeated skeptically, watching as she undid the screws at the back of the earring.

She showed it to him once it was in three pieces in her hand. “M-hm. Just jewelry to look cool. It’s not even sharp.” To demonstrate, she picked up the bottom piece of the earring and touched it to the back of the little boy’s hand.

He gasped, apparently expecting it to be sharp despite her assurances, and when it wasn’t, he grinned at her before turning to Mrs. Darling and declaring sincerely, “Mama, you need jewelry like this!”

Mrs. Darling bit back a laugh, nodding as she said, “I’ll have to look into that.”

When Mrs. Darling caught Harriet’s eye, she smiled warmly at her, and Harriet smiled in return. _At least she had a couple people she’d already won over,_ she mused, _and Jordan had definitely been right to think that she would like little Danny… or_ Daniel _, apparently_.


	7. Chapter 7

Harriet, Harry, and the Darling family spent the next couple hours together, first in the library, and then out in the yard where Danny could run off some energy. They went back inside for a lunch with the foster families of the newly-arrived VKs – King Henri, Queen Ella, and Chad Charming, who were here for Dizzy… which meant that King Eric and Queen Ariel must’ve been here for Uma, since she knew that the Darlings were here for her and Harry.

 _But the ruling family of Triton’s Bay obviously lived in Triton’s Bay, and Triton’s Bay was all the way on the coast, when she and Harry were staying here in Auradon state._ Harriet turned to her brother, watching the same line of thought pass through his face. Cold fury, then slightly more worrying desperation hit his kohl-lined eyes, and Harriet was struck with the realization that the fact that he and Uma were going to be separated by so _much_ distance – something no one had mentioned outright – was going to go over quite badly with her little brother.

At one end of the table with the Darlings, Harry spent the whole meal trying to catch Uma’s eye, trying to communicate something to her that Harriet could only guess at. Harriet, hyperaware of Jay’s explanation and Mal’s faith in her and all the first impressions they were making, spent her time doing what she did best. She capitalized on her ability to connect with kids and spent the meal regaling Danny and Jane – and anyone else who “happened” to be listening in – with tales of how great some of her friends on the Isle could be, particularly the crew of the Madelina.

Almost too soon, lunch was over, though, and it was time to go to their new… places to live with their foster families.

With little more than a wave in Harriet’s direction, Dizzy happily climbed into a limousine with her step-aunt, step-uncle, and cousin, and was gone. Knowing that her brother wouldn’t be so easy to pry apart from Uma, Harriet made sure she took the Darling family’s full attention as she said her own goodbyes to people like Fairy Godmother and Mrs. Darling’s brother, who had come to meet the Hook siblings. _Hopefully she could buy Harry another minute with Uma that way._

Finally, Mr. Darling looked past Harriet to where Uma and Harry were standing, hugging one another, and he told her apologetically, “We really do have to go.”

“Should I…” Mrs. Darling began, only to trail off when Harriet shook her head.

“I’ll get him,” she volunteered.

When Harriet stepped over to the couple – or the two-thirds of a triad, in any case – she couldn’t help noticing the worry that was creasing Harry’s brow, the unusual dejection on Uma’s face, and it worried her far more than she let on in the public space as she reminded them gently, “Harry, we gotta go. You guys will see each other next month, okay?”

Harry nodded, pressing a quick kiss to Uma’s temple as he said under his breath, “You’ll figure it out, love, just like you always do.”

 _What was that about?_ Harriet wondered to herself, but now wasn’t the time to ask, so she didn’t. Instead, she shepherded Harry in front of her as they climbed into the Darling family van and were driven into the nearby town of Little London.

It wasn’t a long drive, but the difference between Little London and the surrounding area was marked, as the streets became cobblestone, the streetlamps were faux gas lamps with electrical bulbs inside, and the houses were all cutesy, old-fashioned Victorians. Though Harry had remained stubbornly silent on the drive here, as they pulled into the driveway of a little white Victorian, he shared a look of muted horror with her.

Even Harriet had to wonder, _what had they gotten themselves into._

She couldn’t help but think about how they had to look as they climbed the front porch steps with their luggage in hand – her and Harry in their black and red, leather, chains, and studs standing on the porch of this sickly-sweet, pearly-white house. _There was definitely some clashing of aesthetics_.

 _And the inside wasn’t any better,_ she noticed right away. There was a hideous golden, floral-patterned couch, more fake electrical candles everywhere for lighting, and—and a bellowing mountain of fluff heading straight for them.

Harry curled in on himself, ducking behind Harriet, and she automatically put her hands up, hoping to protect both herself and her little brother as the thing jumped on her, looking her directly in the eyes.

“Nana, _no_!” Danny ordered sharply, stepping in between Harriet and… Nana as he put his full weight into shoving the siblings’ assailant away.

Biting back a smile, Mr. Darling reached over his son, taking the collar of the… _dog – the loud mountain of fluff was a really big dog_ – as he pulled her away from Harriet and back down onto all fours.

“Oh, goodness,” Mrs. Darling said with a frown. “I’m so sorry we forgot to warn you; we have a dog.”

Harry muttered a disgruntled “well, obviously” as he stepped out from behind Harriet, smoothing down his vest and trying to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed by his own reaction to the animal.

“Harriet, Harry,” Mr. Darling said cheerfully. “Meet Nana.”

“Nana _the Third_ ,” Danny corrected his father imperiously.

“How… regal,” Harriet commented of the dog’s name, staring dubiously at the drooling, panting animal that was staring right back at her and Harry.

Mr. Darling choked back a laugh, like he could see exactly what she really thought as he explained, “We’ve had two dogs before Nana _the Third._ ”

“And now you’ve decided to go for a small _pony_ instead?” Harry suggested, saying something along the lines of what Harriet was thinking.

Mrs. Darling chuckled. “She’s a Saint Bernard. I grew up with one as a child, and when Jane was born, Edward and I decided to get another. She passed on last year, and the house seemed too quiet without her, so we got Nana the Third from a shelter soon after.”

“Speaking of house,” Jane spoke up, tapping her foot impatiently from the bottom of the staircase off the entryway. “Can we maybe show them the rest of this one?”

“Of course,” Mrs. Darling agreed, gesturing for Harriet and Harry to follow Jane.


	8. Chapter 8

Jane obligingly conducted the house tour, and Harriet had to admit that it was a nice house, with a whopping five bedrooms, and three bathrooms. All the rooms were small, and the furniture was old-fashioned and well-loved, but it was a nice house… just a cute, normal little house for a cute, normal little family.

Watching Harry look around the house, she had to wonder how long it was going to take for the two of them to feel stifled by the simplistic perfection of it all.

When Harry was shown his room, he immediately went in, flung his bag onto the bed, and shut the door – shutting himself in and the rest of them out. In a moment of relief that felt a little traitorous towards him, Harriet realized that if he kept himself barricaded in there – as he was quite likely to – they may never know when he started feeling suffocated… _and in a way, wouldn’t that be nice?_

* * *

Except, as the weeks passed, Harry did not, by any stretch of the imagination, play nice with their foster family. Or even with her, for that matter, and she’d lived apart from Harry long enough that she wasn’t sure how to help him. _Calming the worst of Harry’s fits had long been Uma’s job, and Gil’s, and Harry knew that better than anybody, which only served to make his temper worse because they weren’t here with him._

Within the first week, he’d taken Harriet’s sword – their mother’s sword, that she’d brought purely for sentimental reasons and stashed in the top of her closet where Danny wouldn’t be able to reach it and hurt himself – and carved the old Isle motto “WE RIDE WITH THE TIDE” into his bedroom wall. Mr. and Mrs. Darling had been shocked, but endlessly patient, which only made Harry angrier because it hadn’t gotten the rise out of them that he’d wanted.

But it had bothered Harriet in a different way, because by using her sword, Harry had made it harder on himself. The sword was long and would’ve required more leverage and pressure. Grabbing a kitchen knife would’ve been easier but using Harriet’s sword had drawn her into his misbehavior.

Mr. and Mrs. Darling had assured her that they didn’t see it that way, and they had promptly gotten Harry in to see some sort of therapist. After two sessions with the man, that was all Harry had done – he’d _seen_ the therapist, but as of yet refused to say a word to him. He’d refused to do anything but brood all day, every day, snapping out of it only long enough to call Uma every night.

Harriet, on the other hand, had found her own place in this family, far more easily than she’d expected to – at least whenever Harry was quiet and shut up in his room. Part of her hoped that being easy to deal with, helpful, and responsible, would make up for some of her brother’s acting out. The other part of her felt increasingly guilty for growing to be so at home here – for going on walks with Nana, Jane, and Danny, for enjoying movie nights with the Darlings, cappuccinos, and board games – when half of her crew and none of Harry’s were here to enjoy the same simple things.

Between Harry’s increasing rebellion against the family unit, and Harriet’s inner conflict over being with them, it was almost a relief when the time came for her and Harry to move into the dorms for the start of the school year.

Harriet worried, though, that the Darlings – no matter how nice they’d been – were going to be even more relieved than she was.

* * *

Auradon Prep was a scene of constrained chaos when Mr. Darling joined the long queue of vehicles depositing students, assistants, and parents alike at the doors of the school. “Do you want me to come in with you?” he offered.

“No,” Harry answered before Harriet could. “We can get our assignments ourselves.”

Harriet was less sure of that, and she certainly didn’t see what the problem would’ve been with help, but Harry had grabbed his solitary suitcase and gotten out of the van before she could say so.

Mrs. Darling sighed softly after him, turning to look at Harriet through the rearview mirror as she said, “Well, have a good time, then. I’m sure you’ll do perfectly, and we’ll see you over Christmas break, alright?”

Harriet nodded, reaching for the suitcase and sword sheath that she’d brought as she replied, “We’ll see you then. And thank you,” she made sure to look at both adults, to make sure they understood her sincerity as she said, “For taking us in. It’s been really nice to be welcomed into your family.”

“You’ve been a joy to have with us, Harriet,” Mr. Darling assured her as Mrs. Darling murmured, “Of course.”

Harriet winced, probably reading more into what Mr. Darling had said than what he’d meant for her to, but she couldn’t help adding, “And I’m sorry that Harry’s been so difficult.”

Mrs. Darling shook her head. “It’s alright. He wasn’t properly prepared for the reality of being here, and that’s not his fault. Besides,” she grinned at Harriet in the rearview mirror. “Dealing with lost boys has never scared me.”

Harriet grinned, impulsively letting go of her suitcase to reach forward and hug Mrs. Darling around the passenger seat. Mrs. Darling barely had time to return the gesture before Harriet grabbed her suitcase and jumped out of the van. As the van door was closing behind her, she grinned to hear Mr. Darling ask worriedly, “Do you think we should’ve asked her to leave the sword at the house?”

 _He may have had a point_ , Harriet relented, because Fairy Godmother _definitely_ eyed the sheathed weapon when Harriet bypassed her at the entrance to the school. All the headmistress said, though, was, “Dorms are to the right, dear, look for Jane on the right again at the top of the staircase, she’ll give you your room assignment.”

“Thanks,” Harriet said, looking around as she stepped into the same entryway she’d been in last month… and immediately noticed her brother sneaking off to the left. _Honestly,_ she thought with a sigh, hurrying over to grab the collar of his leather vest. He jerked away from her on instinct, an elbow aiming backwards to fly into the ribs of whoever had grabbed him, but she took a step back just as quickly, saying, “Fairy Godmother said the dorm rooms were to the _right_ , stupid.”


	9. Chapter 9

Harry turned to her with a too-wide smile, explaining, “Uma’s said she gave herself her own self-guided tour of the school when we first came; I just want to get the same privilege.”

Not trusting a word he said, Harriet grabbed a fistful of his collar once more, dragging him behind her to the staircase as she declared, “We are getting our assignments, and unpacking, and keeping a low profile. You’re going to be on your best behavior here, got it?”

“I’m not one of yer whiny little crewmembers, Harriet,” he snapped. “And yer not in charge of me.” _Because that wasn’t the most six-year-old thing he could’ve possibly said?_ “Besides,” he purred. “I’m always on me best behavior.”

Harriet rolled her eyes, not giving him the decency of a response as she shoved him up the stairs ahead of her and located Jane LaFae, as promised, standing to the right of the stairs with a clipboard. “Harriet and Harry Hook?” she asked the girl, though she had no doubt that Mal’s assistant – and everyone else at this school – knew who they were.

Jane consulted her list, making a checkmark on it as she informed Harriet, “You’re in room eleven down this hallway, but Harry will have to check in with Doug,” she gestured to where the boy was standing on the left of the staircase. “He has the boys’ assignments for down the left hallway.”

Harry snorted to himself, but Harriet said, “Okay, thanks. I’m just going to,” she patted Harry fondly on the arm until he jerked away from her touch. “Get him settled in first, then I’ll be right back.”

Jane smiled, pretty and welcoming, as she agreed. “Okay.”

She turned towards an Asian girl in a short, silk dress as Harry muttered, “I can settle myself, _sis_.”

“I don’t trust you to go where you’re supposed to,” Harriet informed him under her breath, marching him over to Doug Klein.

Doug gave them Harry’s room assignment and his class schedule, and Harriet walked with him to his room. They shared a cautious look when they realized the door was already cracked open, and, knowing she was probably being a little too cautious, Harriet angled herself in front of him as they approached the door, her hand on the hilt of her sword _just in case_.

Only for her to feel incredibly stupid when she caught sight of the slip of paper that had been put in the nameplate on the door and realized what was really happening. “ _Aziz & Harry_,” the paper read in looping calligraphy. _Because Harry would have a roommate just like everyone else, of course. It was just his roommate. They must’ve gotten here first was all._

Her shoulders dropping in relief, Harriet gestured to the telling nameplate, and Harry understood what she meant, but the first words out of his mouth were “Aw, hell no.”

She glared at him and shoved him into the room anyway, but the boy who was in there… well, Harriet had no foundation for her opinion, but he didn’t _look_ princely. “Aziz Ababwa?” she asked suspiciously.

“Ah, no,” the lanky boy in Agrabahn apparel confirmed. “Aziz is my employer. I’m his assistant, Ahmed. He got here a few days ago, and I was just dropping off some things that he’d forgotten back in Agrabah.” He sidled past the siblings, saying, “I’ll leave you to get settled. But it was nice to meet you.”

Rolling his eyes, Harry flung his suitcase onto the bed that didn’t have a white and gold canopy affixed over the top of it. “Hard to meet a person when you don’t even stick around long enough for them to give you their name.”

“Harry, we both know everyone here already knows who we are,” Harriet pointed out. “We were on TV last month when we first came, plus…” she gestured to their outfits – as red and black and sea-ready as ever – saying, “Look at us.”

“Look at _them_!” Harry shot back, gesturing to the ritzy canopy. “Do you think they’re all going to be as freaked out as that _assistant_ , or as prissy as…” he was still eyeing the canopy skeptically. “As whoever this ‘Aziz’ is?”

Harriet arched an eyebrow, about to remind Harry that Aziz was Jay’s brother, if she remembered right, but before she could, someone asked from the doorway, “Do you really think it’s _prissy_?”

 _Shit._ Harriet and Harry both turned to see a curly-haired kid leaning against the doorjamb, a bag of sports’ gear slung over his shoulder. He _looked far more like a “Prince Aziz.”_ When he smiled, it was Jay’s smile, too, which was confirmation enough for Harriet as he came further into the room and dropped his duffel bag at the end of the bed.

“Yes,” Harry answered sharply, and Harriet glared at him again. Again, he ignored her silent rebuke.

“Huh.” Aziz crossed his arms over his chest, still casually considering his own bed as he agreed, “Maybe you’re right. It probably does seem a little like overkill, but it reminds me of home, so I think I’ll keep it for now.” Turning fully to Harry, he asked curiously, “Do you have anything from home?”

Harry eyed him, mischief flashing through his eyes before he unzipped his suitcase and pulled out his hook, moving to brandish it menacingly near the prince’s face. Aziz’s eyes darkened in an instant, and he grabbed Harry’s wrist, twisting in such a way that, with a sharp, surprised gasp of pain from her brother, within the next second Harry’s prized hook was in Aziz’s hand.

Surprise flashed through Harry’s eyes as Aziz smiled calmly at him – not a royal to be intimidated, apparently. Harry relaxed his intimidating stance, holding his hand out for his hook, and Aziz gave it back, telling him, “I don’t recommend trying it around here, but if it comes to it, you’ll find I have a fairly decent amount of training in street fighting tactics. My dad’s idea, so don’t tell my mom.” Harry blinked at him in surprise as Aziz added cheerfully, “Also for the record, I bet her sword is cooler than your hook.”

That startled a laugh out of Harriet before she suggested, “Come on, Harry; let’s go ask Jane where we can find Uma.”

“He can stay and unpack if he wants,” Aziz said, looking between the siblings. “Don’t leave on my account.” He smiled confidently. “We can handle each other, can’t we, Harry?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Harry hummed thoughtfully, his ice blue eyes still bright with anger.

“No,” Harriet drawled, reaching for Harry. “He’s coming with _me_ for now. Or,” she caught Harry’s eye, asking pointedly, “Don’t you want to find your girlfriend?”

That snapped Harry out of his rage as he turned towards the door with Harriet muttering, “Fine.”


	10. Chapter 10

“Actually,” Jane informed them cheerfully. “Uma’s room is right next door to yours, Harriet.”

“Oh, perfect,” Harriet answered cheerfully. _All the better to keep an eye on her brother, because goodness knew he was going to prefer being with Uma over being around Aziz Ababwa._

Off they went to the dorm room next to Harriet’s, and when Harry poked his head into the room, judging by nothing more than the immediate relaxing of his shoulders, Harriet knew they’d found Uma even before she saw her. Harry stepped into the bubblegum pink room, his arms already open for a hug, and Harriet couldn’t help the genuine smile that tugged at her lips, watching how automatically two of the Isle’s most notorious pirates relaxed into one another’s arms.

“Uma,” Harry breathed. “Gods, I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you, too,” Uma muttered against his chest, holding on to Harry a little longer than Harry held onto her.

“You okay?” he checked.

“Yes and no,” Uma replied. “I wasn’t, and then I was, and now I’m not, I’m… aggravated again, but I’ll figure it out.”

“You always do,” Harry reminded her quietly.

“How about you?” Uma asked him, deflecting now – and probably because Harriet was still in the room – but Harry let her do it.

“I mean, I’m fine now. We got the most boring foster family _ever_ , and I have roommate that’s just as terrible, but as long as you’re here, I’m fine.”

Uma smiled fleetingly at him, before groaning, “Oh, _your_ roommate’s bad! Did you see the names on that nameplate?” When Harry shook his head, Uma demanded, “Go look. I don’t know who you got, but it’s better than me.”

Tiring of holding her own suitcase and knowing that Harry wouldn’t be moving from Uma’s side now that he’d found her, Harriet ducked into the hallway, stopping to peer at the names on her own dorm room door.

_No way._

She didn’t realize she’d said the words aloud until Jordan stuck her head out of their dorm room, her black and magenta ponytail swinging as she smiled at Harriet. “How you doing, roomie?”

For a second, Harriet’s brain blanked stupidly at that smile before she thought, _If she was right about Jordan, her school year had just gained the potential to get a lot better, and if she was wrong—_

Before she could decide on a negative side effect of having the genie as her roommate, an enraged gasp from right outside Uma’s room caught her attention, and Jordan’s.

A girl in a pink and blue dress was staring in disgust into the dorm room, clearly perturbed as she said, “You’re kidding.” She turned on her heel, making her way back to Jane.

Jane was already holding up a hand to stop the princess before she could so much as speak. “Don’t look at me, Audrey; I had nothing to do with the room assignments.”

“Well, can you at least talk to your mom about getting me a new roommate?” the girl muttered. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to live with Uma, of all people.”

Jane considered Audrey for a second, revealing, “My mom didn’t even assign you and Uma to the same room.”

Audrey – _Princess Audrey, from Auroria… Jay’s new girlfriend,_ Harriet recalled – blinked in confusion, asking, “Then who did? I thought your mom assigned the rooms.”

“She does, but Ben asked for you and Uma to be put together. He actually did all the roommate assignments for the VKs.”

_Interesting…_

Harriet turned to glance back at Jordan, to see if she had known that, or what she thought of it, but she was distracted by the way her new roommate was watching Princess Audrey with a twinkle in her eyes, biting her lip to keep from laughing aloud. “What?” Harriet asked her. “Why’s it so funny?”

Jordan reached out and grabbed Harriet’s arm, pulling her into their room before she shut the door behind them and burst out laughing. From the first time she’d met Jordan, Harriet had known she was a beautiful girl – she had eyes, after all – but now she found she couldn’t look away from the fit of entirely too infectious laughter. The Agrabahn’s black eyes were glittering, the sun through the window hitting her hair so that blonde streaks were added to the black and magenta, and when Jordan laughed so hard that she started leaning into Harriet, Harriet couldn’t help but laugh, too. She didn’t even know why they were laughing, not really, but it felt so _good_ to just let loose and laugh.

They laughed until they were sitting on the floor together, tears in the corners of their eyes. As they eventually worked to catch their breaths, Harriet turned to watch Jordan again. _Strong nose, dark features… but Jordan’s eyes were what kept grabbing her attention – eyes that snapped with real wit, sarcasm, and intelligence._

Harriet was far from a sap. She’d never claimed to be in love, not once in her life, and if she had believed in love, she _wouldn’t_ believe in love at first sight. But now she wondered… _what about love at second sight, or third sight?_ Because for just a minute she wanted to let herself believe in something as stupid as that.

Jordan caught her staring, and a strange look passed over her face. Harriet didn’t so much as blink, wouldn’t be ashamed of admiring beauty, and for one heart-stopping second, when Jordan shifted, she thought she was going to kiss her. Harriet’s hands itched to cup the girl’s face and initiate the kiss herself.

On the Isle she would have.

_But this wasn’t the Isle, and here what Harriet wanted to do would cast a bad light over the VKs._

And she couldn’t allow herself to do anything that might hurt the others’ chances of coming to this safer place.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Jordan asked, fingertips picking in a subconscious tick at the cuff of her golden jacket.

Harriet dragged air back into her lungs, groaning, “Oh, I don’t know _when_ I’ve laughed like that.”

Jordan grinned, commenting, “Glad I could help.”


	11. Chapter 11

“What were we even laughing at?” Harriet asked again.

“Audrey Rose, mostly.” Jordan’s eyebrows drew together as she stood to her feet, adding, “Sort of.” As Harriet also stood, picking up her suitcase and taking it to the room’s unclaimed bed, she explained, “I’m willing to actually bet that she and Uma sharing a room this school year is going to be _the_ drama to watch.”

“You think it’ll be that bad?” Harriet asked skeptically.

“It’s a boarding school; there’s always _some_ sort of drama that’s ‘that bad,’ but at the very least I don’t think it’ll be smooth sailing.” Jordan glanced over at Harriet, a smirk tilting the edge of her mouth as she added, “No pirate pun intended.” She sat on the edge of her bed, watching as Harriet checked out their room – _how much space was in her dresser? The closet? Were all the bathrooms as nice as this one?_ – as she asked, “But you know Uma, right? Like… actually, not just as the scary octopus that crashed the cotilion?”

“M-hm,” Harriet confirmed, returning to her bed to open her suitcase and start unpacking.

“How do _you_ think her being here is going to go? Because it sounds totally terrible, but I mostly just think it’s funny because I think it’s about time somebody reminded Audrey that she needs to change how she treats the ‘everyman.’ Having Uma, a non-royal, as her roommate… do you think that would help?”

Harriet deposited an armful of blouses on the bed, going to the closet to get a handful of hangers. “I don’t know Audrey, but I can see Uma being good like that… I can also see Uma being so focused on the other VKs that she doesn’t care about anything else, including her roommate, though.”

“What about you?” Jordan asked curiously, tilting her head so that she could better see Harriet’s expression. “How do you feel about ‘the other VKs?’”

Harriet wasn’t sure what exactly Jordan was asking, so she shrugged, saying, “I’m not sure I know how to care about anything besides the other VKs?” She left it at that even though she was pretty sure the statement wouldn’t make sense without context and continued hanging her clothes up.

“That can’t really be true, can it? I mean, what do you do for fun?”

 _What was she supposed to say to that? “Quickies with a girl I don’t like as a person in between helping little kids with their homework?”_ “I like movies. And I have discovered that I like boardgames, the ones that make you think, where you have to be strategic to win.”

“Movies and boardgames?” Jordan repeated, arching an eyebrow. Harriet nodded, only for Jordan to shake her head. “Nah. Auradon’s got to have more to offer you than that.” She shot her a coy smile, promising, “And if you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you myself.”

Harriet smiled back at her, returning to unpacking before the gaze could linger too long. _That sounded promising…_

* * *

After Harriet was unpacked, Jordan gave her, Harry, and Uma a tour of the school. They grabbed dinner from the cafeteria – _“It’s open until ten, but the best time to come is after eleven. Shhh… don’t question it yet, just trust me.”_ – and went back to their dorms. Well, Harry and Uma went back to Uma’s room, and Harriet and Jordan went to their own, where they stayed up talking until half past ten.

They talked about anything and everything – superficial things like their favorite subjects in school ( _Jordan liked music best)_ , silly things like their favorite colors _(purple for Jordan; red for Harriet)_ and their pets ( _Jordan had pet_ snakes), all the way to the real things like their fears, how they’d grown up. Things like how Jordan constantly kept her genie’s lamp with her in her bookbag when she was at school because she was secretly terrified that someone would gain access to it and use her own powers against her.

Harriet filed away all the information Jordan gave her, sitting cross-legged on the genie’s bed with her, and as they dove deeper into getting to know one another, they relaxed more into each other’s presence. By the time they changed into their pajamas that night – right there in the middle of the room in plain sight of the other so they didn’t have to stop talking, and if she hadn’t been before, Harriet was convinced then that Jordan _knew_ what she was doing – Harriet found herself telling Jordan about her life on the Isle. Not her life on the Jolly Roger with her father, not the _before_ life of drunken rages and leering men that she’d ran away from at twelve, but the life she’d left behind to come here. The Madelina – named after her dearly departed mom – the crew of VKs that she’d taken under her wing, her school, her truces and little network with Blanche and Uma, her worries for CJ and the others left behind.

Jordan listened to it all, apparently just as enthralled by her as she was by Jordan.

When Harriet finally trailed off, picking at a nonexistent thread on Jordan’s embroidered bedspread and hoping that she hadn’t said too much, gotten too personal too soon, Jordan sighed softly, reaching for her hand. “I never really thought about that before. I mean, of course it makes sense that you’d be worried about the people you left behind… but I just never thought about it.”

Harriet looked down at their intertwined hands, smiling thinly. “Nobody has, really, unless they’re in the same position. I, I don’t want to seem ungrateful, because I’m really, really happy to be here, but…” she didn’t expect Jordan to understand, but she met her eyes anyway, two dark pools of empathy in an open expression. “But they’re my _kids._ CJ is thirteen, and as long as she stays with Blanche or Gil and doesn’t go back to Dad, then maybe she’ll be okay. Maybe. But Fawn is just five, and maybe she’ll do better with Blanche again, but… but I don’t know. And that’s just it. I _won’t_ know because I’m not there… with _my kids_.” Harriet sighed, releasing Jordan’s hand to gather her black curls together at the base of her neck and tie them sloppily back with a hairband. “But you didn’t ask for that much of an info dump. I’m sorry, I just—”

“No,” Jordan was quick to shake her head. “Don’t apologize. Everybody needs a good rant sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Harriet ran her hands over her tired eyes, admitting, “I don’t know when I’ve just _talked_ to somebody like this.”

Jordan smiled teasingly. “No laughing, no grownup conversations… you really are a mom, aren’t you?”

Harriet chuckled softly. “Something like that.”

Watching the way she was still trying to blink sleep from her eyes, Jordan offered gently, “You wanna sleep? It’s been a long day.”

 _No, she didn’t want to sleep. She wanted to stay up with her roommate and talk until the sun came up. She wanted to know even more about who she was and tell Jordan about everything that was important to her. But Jordan was right, it had been a long day._ So, Harriet nodded. “Yeah, we probably should.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right. So. In a place like Auradon that paints such a 1920-50s picture of what a family should look like, I decided to run with that idea and paint my own picture of a Disneyesque sort of underground queer safe space.   
> Also! Also! Listen, guys, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney fairytale - no, really, I, an adult woman have decorated my living room in Beauty and the Beast décor - but someone come yell with me about the hypocrisy of the prince known as "Beast" being the one to set up a place like the Isle and Auradon that draws such firm lines between black and white. I can't be the only one who's thought it, right?

It was only a little after midnight when Harriet was jarred awake with a gentle shake to her shoulder. She sat up, still mostly asleep, and somewhere within her half-asleep brain, she fully expected to see Fawn at her bedside, troubled by some nightmare or shadow belowdecks. “What is it, honey?” she murmured.

“Oh, _sweetheart_ ,” Jordan cooed with laughter in her tone, and the unexpected voice pulled Harriet back to her new reality as the genie flipped on her bedside lamp.

“What are you doing?” Harriet muttered in the muted light, staring at Jordan as she realized that the other girl had changed back into street clothes

“I promised I’d show you the best that Auradon had to offer you, didn’t I?” Jordan asked cheekily, clearly more awake than Harriet as she opened their shared closet and pulled out one of Harriet’s black dresses, one with a short skirt, mesh and tulle composing the midriff, and a shredded sweetheart neckline. “Oh,” she turned back to Harriet with wide, appreciative eyes. “You should definitely wear this.”

“Right now?”

Jordan chuckled. “Yes, ‘right now.’ We’re going on an adventure, pirate,” she teased. “Or isn’t that your sort of thing?” Harriet squinted at the time on her phone, making sure she had seen it correctly as Jordan teased her merrily, “Oh, yeah, that’s right. You’re as much a house mother as you are a pirate.”

Harriet scoffed at the good-natured teasing, throwing off her blankets and taking the dress from Jordan. Going into the bathroom to change, she pointed out, “You know my ship never left the pier, right?” Once she’d changed, she reemerged from the bathroom, asking, “Where are we going, anyway?”

Jordan handed Harriet her black combat boots, pressing a warning finger to her lips. “It’s a secret,” she whispered. “But you should probably grab a jacket or something.”

Harriet arched her eyebrows. “In August?”

“Don’t you trust me?” Jordan asked, the excited sparkle never leaving her eyes even as she pretended to pout.

Harriet wanted to kiss the pout off her face, but she settled for shrugging a flannel on over her dress and offering Jordan her hand, ready to let her lead the way. _She shouldn’t,_ whispered some Isle-born instinct. _She shouldn’t trust Jordan already_ – she never trusted people this quickly – but looking into the bright brown eyes, Harriet couldn’t quite bring herself to see what harm it could do. As Jordan took her hand, turned off the light, and led her into the deserted hallway, Harriet decided that whatever this night brought, she really was ready for it.

Somehow, she wasn’t really surprised when Jordan led her to the locked cafeteria. She was a _little_ surprised, though, when Jordan was able to push the door right open; apparently, it wasn’t as locked as it should’ve been. She was definitely surprised when she was led straight through the dining area and into the kitchen.

 _Why was this starting to feel familiar?_ “You’re not taking me to a children’s home, are you?” she quipped as she was led into a walk-in freezer.

“Oh, definitely not,” Jordan snorted, shivering at the rush of cold as she shoved aside a curtain of plastic at the back of the freezer, revealing an ancient-looking wooden door.

“What…?”

“Come on,” Jordan said with a bright smile, knocking a purposeful staccato on the door. “I’m taking you to the dungeon.”

“The _what_?” Harriet demanded as the door was shoved open from the inside – _by Chad Charming? What was happening?_

Chad looked as startled to see Harriet as Harriet was to see him. Looking her over suspiciously, he asked Jordan, “You’re already sure about her?”

Jordan rolled her eyes at him. “Please, Chadwick, when have I ever been wrong? Besides,” she tugged gently on Harriet’s choice of outerwear. “Do you _see_ the flannel?”

A smirk passed over Chad’s face, but he moved to the side of the long, narrow staircase so that they could squeeze by him and make the sharp descent into the darkness. “Whatever you say.”

“Thank you,” Jordan replied airily, holding Harriet’s hand a little more tightly as they started down the stairs. “Be careful on these steps; they’re the worst to fall on.”

Harriet believed her, glad that her combat boots were slip proof against the moist and narrow stone steps. “This is the _actual_ castle dungeon, isn’t it?”

Jordan smiled back at her, her face thrown into strange shadows from the small square of light filtering through the window in the dungeon door as she nodded. “The very one our beloved king Beast kept his father-in-law and wife in when they first met.”

“Great,” Harriet replied, quiet and sarcastic.

As they left the steps behind and turned the corner, Jordan informed her, “It’s had a bit of a makeover since being the Beast’s castle, same as the rest of the school.”

“I can see that,” Harriet murmured, staring up at the ceiling. The whole thing was a web of purple lights of all shades and sizes – lavender, lilac, maroon, plum, Christmas lights, fairy lights, paper lanterns, and, here and there, an actual purple lightbulb dangled from the ceiling.

Smiling broadly, Jordan watched her delighted expression as she surveyed the room. Students were scattered throughout the room, sitting and talking at rickety or unbalanced tables, digging sodas and snacks out of ice chests, pouring themselves cups of a purple-tinted drink from a water cooler in the corner. Making out against the walls, in the shadowed corners, while sitting on each other’s laps. Boys with boys, girls with girls, girls dressed in masculine clothing, and vice versa.

She turned to Jordan, understanding dawning as she demanded quietly, “What the _hell_ is this place?” _Because whatever it was, it sure as the world wasn’t a part of the Auradon that she’d grown up hearing about._

“Welcome,” Jordan wound an arm around her waist, leading her further into the room. “To the Lavender Lounge, Auradon’s safest space for queer kids.”

“And Auradon Prep’s most-closely guarded secret,” someone new said carefully, stepping up beside Jordan with a cup of whatever-was-in-that-cooler in her hand. It was the girl in the silk dress that Harriet had noticed earlier in the day. _Or… yesterday,_ she supposed. She glanced at Jordan, commenting, “You’re late; we’ve been down here for an hour already. And _you_ ,” she turned to point at Harriet with raised eyebrows. “You’re a little early.”

“Nah,” Jordan wrapped her arms protectively around Harriet from behind her, and Harriet just put her hands over Jordan’s, tilting her neck to better accommodate Jordan’s chin on her shoulder like they’d stood that way a thousand times before. “She’s good, Lonnie.”

“Well,” Lonnie gave her an appraising onceover, a smile sliding slowly onto her face before she relaxed as she teased agreeably, “I guess there is the flannel.”

“Exactly!” Jordan said cheerfully. “That’s what I told Chad.”

Lonnie snorted, introducing herself to Harriet with a warm smile that made her feel as if she’d just passed some sort of test, gotten into some sort of club… _and maybe that was exactly what she’d done._ “I’m Li Lonnie, Li Shang and Fa Mulan’s daughter.”

“Harriet Hook,” Harriet replied, returning the smile carefully.


	13. Chapter 13

“You want a tour?” Lonnie asked, gesturing to the space behind them – she’d stopped them as good as at the door, and Harriet had to assume that was on purpose. “It can be a bit of a maze down here once you leave the main hall.”

“I was, uh,” Jordan looked hopefully at Harriet as she said, “Hoping to give you a tour myself.”

Lonnie lifted her chin, understanding dawning in her eyes as the pieces clicked in her mind and she bit back a smile. “I see. Do either of you want a drink?” she held up the bright orange plastic cup in her hand.

“Alcohol?” Harriet asked skeptically.

“No, no,” Lonnie rushed to assure her. “We do each other here at the Lavender Lounge, but not drugs. It’s just an aphrodisiac – Florian White’s specialty, in fact. I think he’s got his… ‘brewery’ down here somewhere.”

Harriet smiled thinly, shook her head. “No, thanks, then.”

Lonnie nodded approvingly. “That’s smart of you.” She took a sip out of her cup and headed towards the stairs, bidding them, “You guys have fun!”

Once she was gone, Harriet turned in Jordan’s arms, murmuring worriedly, “She knows an aphrodisiac is a _drug_ , right?”

Jordan snorted. “She definitely knows. That’s why she’s drinking it as she goes up to see Chad, I’d bet.”

Harriet squinted after Lonnie, commenting, “She seems a little too… edgy for Chad.”

“True,” Jordan agreed. “But Chad and our bisexual badass boss lady have figured out a way to be together that works for them, and to be honest, I don’t really question it.”

“That’s fair,” Harriet hummed, casting a glance around again.

“Come on,” Jordan bid her, stepping back, and taking her hand once again. “There’s a dance floor in one of these cells.”

The cobbled-together look of things down here, the cheap lights and poorly disguised dankness, reminded Harriet of the Isle. She would’ve easily believed that the hearts had founded a place like this… _maybe just an alley away from the town square,_ she imagined. But there was an air of secrecy here, of freedom and desperation and mystery, in a way that made it feel like they were a world away from their dorm rooms upstairs. It felt like a place and a moment that was frozen in time, and like nothing they chose to do here would ever leave here.

So, when Jordan led her onto a small dance floor in a room further down the hall, Harriet chose to kiss her as they swayed to the quiet music.

Jordan smiled into the kiss, putting her head on Harriet’s shoulder, and holding her a little closer as she said, “Welcome to Auradon, Harriet Hook. I’m _really_ glad you’re here.”

Afraid to ruin the moment, Harriet suddenly wondered if Jordan would still be glad in the morning. Now that she’d done it, that she’d kissed this girl that she was only just getting to know – this girl that she was still going to have to share a room with no matter how this turned out – she was struck with all the different, and _bad_ , ways that it could go.

“You’re thinking too loudly,” Jordan complained, pulling her in for another kiss. “Stop it, or I’ll have to show you some of the other cells down here and make _sure_ you’re distracted.” Harriet wasn’t sure if that was a threat or a promise, and her confusion must’ve flashed across her face, because Jordan chuckled and supplied, “Beds, sweetheart. There are some beds down here.”

“Why use those when we have perfectly good beds back in our room?” Harriet asked.

Jordan took a step back, searching her face as she asked curiously, “Back in our room to sleep? Or… you know, _not_ to sleep?”

Harriet licked her lips nervously, admitting softly, “I’m not sure yet.”

She realized she was asking for space the only way she knew how, because she _didn’t_ know how to tell Jordan that this felt different to her. She didn’t know how to admit that she was panicking a little because she didn’t know how do this – how to forge connections that were real and emotional, and based on something besides what was going to happen next if Jordan kept giving her the smoldering look that she was.

And something long-buried in Harriet really did want to build something real, even here in Auradon, where it had to happen in a dungeon full of fairy lights and discarded furniture. Because a strange sort of awareness was prickling to life in the back of her mind.

_She had that option here._

Without the kids – her crew, _her kids_ – she had the option to do things for herself, to be a real teenager for once and enjoy her senior year of high school like everyone else. She didn’t really know what to do with that idea yet, but whatever it was, she wanted to do it _right_ , and differently from what she’d done before. And maybe that needed to start here, with Jordan, with taking a step back from a cliff she was on the edge of before she pulled them both down and to their early deaths.

Jordan nodded, understanding something of what must’ve been on her face even though Harriet didn’t miss the disappointment that flashed through her eyes. “Okay.” She brushed a strand of Harriet’s curls behind her ear, taking her hand again as she agreed gently, “If you’re ready to go, we can do that.”

So, they did, with Jordan leading her out of the cell, through the main room, up the deathtrap stairs – around where Chad and Lonnie were definitely making out in possibly the worst-imaginable spot down here – and back into their dorm room.

Afraid to look at her, Harriet sat down on her bed and started to undo the laces of her boots as Jordan closed the door, locked it, and turned her bedside lamp back on. Harriet’s mouth went dry as Jordan crouched down beside her, trying her best to catch Harriet’s eye as she asked quietly, “Did I do something wrong?”


	14. Chapter 14

“No!” Harriet rushed to assure her. “Gods, no. I had a good time. I—”

“I pushed,” Jordan said flatly, the one to look away from Harriet now. “I pushed and I rushed you, and I—I’m awful, I’m sorry.”

“No,” Harriet repeated firmly. “You’re fine. You’re… perfect.” Jordan snorted, looking back at Harriet as she continued, “You’re gorgeous, and fiery, and exactly the type of person that I would go for.”

“Then what happened?” Jordan asked in confusion.

Harriet blew out a frustrated breath, not sure how to explain her only partially-untangled thoughts as she asked, “Have you ever met someone that just… immediately fascinated you? That you felt immediately comfortable with?”

Jordan put a hand on Harriet’s knee, pointedly holding her gaze as she said, “ _Yes_. I thought that’s what…” she hesitated before forging ahead. “Was… happening here.”

Harriet nodded. “Me too. At least, I wanna think so. But… whenever that has happened to me in the past… I rush into it… but then, at least emotionally, I rush out of it. I self-sabotage, and I know it… because I feel like I have to.” Jordan sat down on the floor, giving Harriet her full, earnest attention as she explained, “Because of my kids on the Madelina. Because I am a seventeen-year-old who, at any given time, is trying to raise somewhere between five and twelve kids, and—and don’t get me wrong: I love them, every one of them, with everything that I have. But they take _everything_ that I have… my time, my mental capacity, my emotional capacity – it goes to them, because that’s what it takes to make sure that they’re okay, and I’m okay with that. I am.

“But I’m here now, and as much as I want them to be here, too, they’re not – at least not with me. For the first time ever – like, _actually_ ever – I have the option to be a real teenager. I have the option to pursue a real relationship, not just sex, if I want to… and I… whatever _this_ is,” she put her hand carefully over Jordan’s where it was still resting on her knee. “I want to figure out a way that I don’t sabotage it. I want to see…” She froze, realizing she was about to say _way_ too much, realizing that if she were in Jordan’s place, she would’ve already gotten up and ran away from her outpouring. “If…”

Seeing her struggle in her eyes, Jordan nodded, lifting her hand, and kissing it as she agreed, “I want that, too.”

Harriet hesitated for a moment, not used to feeling uncertain when it came to what passed as “romantic” entanglements in her life, before she asked, “What do we do about it?”

“For now?” Jordan said thoughtfully. “I think we need to go to bed. We’ll sleep on it and be more clearheaded in the morning. And if you still feel up to it tomorrow, I’d like to take you out for dinner.”

“I thought you said we couldn’t do things like that here?”

“Not in the traditional sense,” Jordan allowed. “But you VKs,” she smirked devilishly as she teased, “Of all people should know that there are ways to be sneaky when you want something badly enough.”

Harriet scoffed, pretending offense that she was far from feeling before she shot back, “Oh, perfect.” Jordan stood up, hesitating as she loomed over Harriet. “What?” Harriet asked curiously.

Watching her expression carefully, Jordan said, “You’re free to say ‘no,’ but… can I kiss you ‘goodnight?’”

 _That was possibly the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her_ , Harriet thought as she nodded. Jordan leaned over her, like she was afraid Harriet was going to spook, and when she kissed her cheek, Harriet couldn’t help the breath of laughter that that burst out of her throat. “Goodnight, roomie,” Jordan murmured before she grabbed her pajamas and moved towards the bathroom to change back into them.

“Goodnight,” Harriet replied, surprised by the depth of the fondness that was already laced through her own voice.

* * *

After the past years of being an early riser whether or not she particularly _wanted_ to be, Harriet was awake well before Jordan the next morning. Judging by the silence outside their dorm room door, she was awake before most people. Trying to find another comfortable spot underneath her covers, Harriet looked over towards Jordan’s bed in the dawn light. She smiled when she realized the only thing peeking out from underneath Jordan’s comforter was her ponytail on one end and her feet on the other.

 _This was the same girl who was so cool to talk to, who had such a natural confidence even as she navigated all these royals when she wasn’t one herself._ Jordan snored loudly from underneath the comforter, and Harriet slapped a hand over her own mouth before she could laugh and wake her up. _So cool. Yet… she was, and she found her almost as attractive in this dorky moment as she had last night at the Lavender Lounge._

The smile sliding from her face at the thought, Harriet pushed her coverlet away and got out of bed, chastising herself. _She wasn’t going to be that creeper who stared at somebody as they slept._ Carefully easing open the unfamiliar dresser drawers, she got an outfit together, got ready for the day, and put on her combat boots, not even sure where she was going, just knowing that she needed space away from the dorm room that felt a little too small for both herself and Jordan this morning.

Moving on silent feet over the plush carpet in the halls – _gods, it was such hideous carpet, too, wasn’t it?_ – she found herself back in the cafeteria without quite meaning to be there. _After years of waking up to make breakfast for a bunch of little kids,_ she mused, _maybe it just felt like the right place to go?_ But she didn’t have little kids to care for, and the cafeteria was… well, _almost_ empty, as it turned out. There was a solitary lady rattling around the kitchen, Li Lonnie was sitting at a table with Princess Audrey and a baby-faced, brown-haired freshman, and Uma was sitting all the way on the other side of the room, nursing a mug of coffee with a sour look on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been thinking (dangerous, I know). I think I'm going to start taking suggestions for this series. I don't know if the suggestions would all spurn multi-chapter stories like this one, if I'd set up a separate series in the same universe, or if it'd be something simple like a collection of one-shots, but I adore this universe. It's so much bigger in my mind than it is even in the stories in this series, and I like playing with the different points of view and circumstances in the ILD series, so PROMPTS PLEASE!   
> I'm not necessarily promising that I'll have time or inspiration for any and all prompts that I get (gosh, that sounds so conceited, but I hope you know what I mean), but, please, send me your ideas anyway. Is there a particular character who's point of view you'd like to see? VK, AK, adult, all of 'em - let me know. Is there a particular Disney movie or state in Auradon that you'd like me to touch on? Let me know. I just really like playing in this sandbox, guys, and I want you to let me know what you'd enjoy too!


	15. Chapter 15

Harriet decided to take her chances with the lunch lady.

“Nothing’s out for breakfast yet, dear, just the coffee for now, but I could fetch you a granola bar to tide you over?” she offered kindly.

Harriet shook her head, picking a mug up from beside the coffee pot and filling it with the dark brew. “No, thank you, this is great.”

She took a drink of it, black as it came, and closed her eyes in momentary bliss as the heat slid down her throat. _She still couldn’t believe how much better this stuff was than the sludge that the goblins served up on the Isle._

As the lunch lady went back to her work, Harriet surveyed the cafeteria once again, waggling her eyebrows at Uma. Uma shot her a glare that absolutely _dared_ Harriet to approach her, and Harriet, completely unperturbed, took her up on the dare.

“How you doing?” she asked cheerfully, slipping onto the bench across from Uma. “Still as aggravated as you were when I got here?”

Uma bit her cheek and looked down at her coffee with a sigh, not answering.

 _Which was a ‘yes.’_ This close to her, though, Harriet saw real turbulence in Uma’s eyes, and she offered carefully, “You wanna talk about it?”

Uma stared at her, really stared, for a long moment. Her jaw twitched, and for a second, Harriet really thought she was going to share whatever was on her mind. She was certainly thinking about it. Instead, Uma shook her head, dragging in another long gulp of her coffee. “You’ll find out when they decide it matters,” she muttered cryptically, draining her coffee in a final swallow before she stood up and left Harriet by herself.

Harriet watched the last of the sunrise out the glitzy floor-to-ceiling windows while she finished her first cup of coffee. She poured herself a second cup – _probably not a good idea, but it was so good_ – because she could, then hesitated as a new thought occurred to her. Hesitantly she asked the lunch lady, “Can I take a cup back to my roommate? I’ll bring the mugs back.”

“Aw, that’s nice,” the lady answered sweetly. “Of course you can.”

Harriet gave her a smile of thanks, poured a second cup, and made her way back to her dorm room. _She hadn’t thought this through,_ she realized, only barely managing to open the dorm room door without spilling either cup. She set one of the mugs on Jordan’s bedside table, putting the other one on her own bedside table as she sat on her bed, pulling her class schedule out of a drawer. _It wouldn’t hurt to get a head start on memorizing it,_ she reasoned.

“Mmm… morning,” Jordan mumbled sleepily a few minutes later.

Harriet looked up from her schedule to see Jordan stretching lazily in her bed, and she smiled, repeating softly, “Morning. I, uh,” she gestured to the mug on Jordan’s bedside table, wincing. “Got you coffee. Which is stupid; I don’t even know if you drink coffee.”

Jordan sat up, reaching immediately for the mug. “Oh, I definitely do.” She eyed Harriet over the rim of the mug, and _nobody had the right to be able to give another person such a seductive look while they still had bedhead, that wasn’t fair._ Harriet blushed like an idiot at that look – _what the hell, she was the one who gave other girls that look, and she_ wasn’t _someone who blushed about it!_ “I could get used to this. Thanks,” Jordan said – and promptly gagged when she took her first drink of the coffee.

Harriet surged forward, eyes widening in alarm. “What’s wrong?” Jordan’s expression morphed into one of disgust as she stared at the mug, setting it very carefully aside while Harriet asked, “I thought you said you drink coffee?”

“I do,” Jordan glanced apologetically at her, adding, “Just not black.”

“Oh.” Harriet sat back on her bed. “I didn’t even think about that.” She cringed again. “Sorry, I—”

“It’s totally fine,” Jordan assured her, smiling kindly. “I appreciate the thought. I’m definitely wide awake now.”

Harriet returned her smile uncertainly, returning her attention to her class schedule and fighting the urge to ask the floor to just swallow her up on the spot. Jordan stood, making her bed before she sat on it’s edge and asked Harriet, “Wait. Does that mean you take your coffee _black_?” Harriet nodded, taking a drink out of her own cup just to emphasize her response. “ _How_?” Jordan demanded.

Harriet shrugged, informing her, “It’s a lot better than the sludge the goblins serve on the Isle.”

Jordan blinked, like something Harriet had said had startled her, but instead of replying, she dramatically side-eyed the mug on her bedside table, glanced at Harriet consideringly, then squinted at the mug again. Glanced at Harriet, glanced at the mug. She picked it back up, taking another brave sip.

When a full body shudder coursed through her, Harriet cracked up. Scrambling from her bed, Harriet reached for the mug in Jordan’s hands, saying mercifully in the midst of her laughter, “Stop it! You don’t have to drink it if—”

Laughing along with her, Jordan held the mug backwards out of her reach, leaning back with it so that Harriet couldn’t reach it. “No, maybe I can just decide to like it!”

“No, you _can’t_ ; you didn’t see your face,” Harriet scoffed, still reaching for the coffee over Jordan.

That was when Jordan reached up with her free hand, from where she was effectively lying on the bed underneath Harriet – something Harriet realized the genie had managed very much on purpose – and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, murmuring soft and serious now, “But I like a lot of things.”

That was so corny that Harriet’s breath should _not_ have hitched, but it did as she looked down at the sincerity in Jordan’s eyes. “Really?” she rallied enough to ask as she sat up on the edge of the bed. “Because I was operating under the impression that you had more… specific tastes than most.”

Jordan nodded, sitting up alongside Harriet as she replied, “You’ve got me there.”

“No,” Harriet shifted closer to Jordan, wrapping an arm around her waist, and waiting until Jordan smiled to lock it in place. “I’ve got you _here_.” She cupped her cheek, whispering, “And here.”

Amused by her own ridiculousness, Harriet smiled into their kiss. Jordan put an arm around Harriet, pulling her even closer… and suddenly yelped in alarm as she realized that she’d forgotten she was holding a mug of coffee in the hand that she’d somehow attempted to slide into Harriet’s hair. Harriet gathered her hair and flipped it over her shoulder, snorting when she realized coffee was dripping off a lock of her hair.

“Gods, I’m so sorry!” Jordan apologized, setting the mug down on the bedside table again.

Harriet was still grinning, though, as she promised, “It’s fine; we’re even now. I made you drink terrible coffee, and you put it in my hair. It’s fine.” Jordan groaned in mortification as she continued, in too good of a mood to find the situation anything but amusing, “Now, I am going to go wash my hair, and you should apparently go get an acceptable cup of coffee so we can all keep track of our limbs, okay, honey?”

“Great plan, sweetheart,” Jordan agreed, chuckling again as she moved to get a change of clothes from the closet. Before Harriet could close the bathroom door, she asked quietly, “Hey, Harriet?”

“Yeah?”

Jordan turned from the closet to Harriet, asking with hopeful caution in her eyes, “Dinner? Tonight?”

Harriet let herself grin at the other girl. “Definitely.”


	16. Chapter 16

That evening, before going off on her date with Jordan – _an actual date, and how was she supposed to go about one of those, especially when Jordan was cheerfully insisting on making it another surprise?_ – Harriet knocked on Uma and Audrey’s door. She hadn’t talked to her brother yet today, and she wanted to check on him. For that matter, it probably wasn’t a bad idea to check on Uma, too, and she’d heard them both talking on the other side of the wall off and on all day. Well, “talking” was one way to put it; she’d only heard them when they were raising their voices, and they’d been doing _that_ off and on today.

Harry opened the door himself, looking exasperated. “I love Uma, and you know I do,” he murmured, “But _help me_. Calming her is _Gil’s_ job.”

She could hear Uma snapping from where she stood, and when Harriet stepped into the room, she realized it wasn’t at Harry this time. “Listen, princess, nobody asked for your opinion!” Uma glared daggers across the room at Audrey.

“Just trying to help,” Audrey muttered, scowling at Uma as she turned to the closet. “I understand how things work here better than you do, and that could be helpful, you know.”

“We don’t need or want your help,” Uma insisted. “So, why don’t you just leave us in peace, hm?”

“Because it’s _my room_.”

“It’s as much mine as it is yours. Didn’t anybody ever teach you how to share, princess?”

“No,” Audrey shook her head in frustration. “This was _clearly_ my dorm room and has been the entire time I’ve gone to this school – long before you invaded,” she smiled sickly sweet. “In any sense of the word. You’re the interloper here.”

Harriet stepped in at that, physically into the middle of the room between the two girls, pointing out to Audrey, “You can’t possibly mean that. Maybe once, but not anymore. How can you manage to still hate VKs while being in a relationship with one?”

“I don’t hate VKs,” Audrey replied, pointing to Uma. “I just don’t like _that one_.”

Uma snorted, saying something under her breath about “mutual,” and Harriet turned to Harry for help. “What’s going on here?”

“Her precious Auradonians screwed up,” Uma said. “And Princess Bubblegum got mad that I said it out loud.”

Audrey shot her an incredulous look. “I _did not_.”

Harriet drew in a breath, turning to Audrey to request evenly, “Can I get one version at a time, please?” _She was only one year older than these guys; why did she always feel so much older?_ She turned back to Uma, asking, “What was ‘screwed up?’”

“I got here a day before you guys, right; I talked to Ben, and he gave me access to the database that the ILD compiled – the database that they’re working from to bring kids over. But the more I look at it, it’s not even complete!”

“And the only thing I said,” Audrey added in a tone of severely strained patience. “Is that she should _leave a message_ for Ben.”

“You think I didn’t already think of that?” Uma snapped. “I’ve left four messages with his… servant lady.”

“Secretary,” Audrey supplied. “And you’ll have to be _patient_ and wait for him to return your call. With school starting tomorrow, he’ll be in meetings all day, trying to get as much done as possible before he has to add school to his workload. Cut him some slack; today’s one of the longest days of the year for him. He literally takes ‘breaks’ from the meetings to eat meals in his office while he’s doing paperwork, and he will get back to you when he can. Today, _he can’t_ , so just…” Audrey blew out a breath, eyeing Uma. “Breathe. Trust the ILD, and their process, and breathe.”

“How can I trust them, when they’re oblivious to the fact that they have incomplete information on a subject they’re supposed to be in charge of?”

 _Both girls had a point,_ Harriet could see that – and she also saw the moment Uma got an _idea._

“Wait,” Harry asked as Uma grabbed her phone and hurried out of the room. “Where are you going?”

Harriet skipped that question, following Uma with Audrey and Harry on her heels as she pointed out, “I don’t think you’re allowed to just barge into the king’s office like that.”

“Oh, watch me,” Uma called over her shoulder. “It is nearly dinnertime, isn’t it?”

“I don’t suppose there’s anything we can do to get her to stop, is there?” Audrey asked.

Harry shook his head. “Sorry, gorgeous face, won’t happen.”

Audrey rolled her eyes, pointedly stepping away from Harry and up to Harriet’s side instead.

Into Ben’s office they went, the four of them with Uma in the lead, but Uma suddenly stopped short in the doorway. As Audrey had predicted, Ben was sitting behind his desk. But Mal was sitting on his lap, Jay was in one of his brown chairs, and Evie and Carlos were squeezing together into the other.

 _Oh, boy_. Harriet turned to watch the rage flare in Uma’s eyes as she snapped, “So, this is why he _can’t answer_ , hey, Bubblegum?”

“He’s taking a break, Uma,” Harriet muttered. “Everybody deserves a break sometimes.”

Uma ignored her as Ben asked casually, “Hey, guys, what’s up?” Looking a little closer at Uma, he asked, “Is everything okay?”

“Did you get my messages?” she demanded.

“Um,” Ben looked at her in confusion. “No. Barbara usually gives me yesterday’s messages every morning unless something urgent is brough to her attention. Why?”

“Well, is it ‘urgent’ that your database is missing people?” Uma asked irritably.

Carlos stood up, surrendering the chair to Evie as he asked, “The ILD database?”

“Yeah,” Uma pointed accusingly at Mal. “Hadie’s not in there – at all; I checked a dozen different ways. Did you know that?”

Clearly caught off-guard, Mal sat up on Ben’s lap and reached towards his laptop.

Ben tapped the pin in for her as Uma continued, “And neither is Blanche. A fourth of the professional pickpockets are missing, and there’s almost _no_ Huns. Are you telling me nobody caught that? Who’s in charge of this database anyway?”

“My… Mrs. Radcliffe,” Carlos answered, going to stand beside Mal and Ben as he looked at the computer. “She compiled the database with Evie, me, and the geneticists that ran the DNA tests.”

Uma crossed her arms over her chest. “So… the scientists who have no idea what they’re looking for, a woman who also has no idea who even exists, a girl who’s attended Auradon Prep as long as she was in Isle society, and a boy who actively avoided people while keeping his head buried in electronics instead of paying attention to his surroundings. Great. No wonder people are slipping through the cracks.”


	17. Chapter 17

“It’s not that,” Mal hummed, still looking for Hadie in the database. “Well, apparently, it’s not that _exactly_ , but we did know that some of the VKs weren’t on the database _yet_. Jay, Ben, and I have all looked over the database from time to time, it’s just that it’s mostly Mrs. Radcliffe… Carlos, Evie, Doug… Sultana Jasmine.”

Uma spread her hands. “Why aren’t they all there?”

“When we created the database and the algorithms that we use,” Carlos explained calmly. “The algorithms started to get overloaded, so we had to start entering VKs into the algorithms as we were able to remove others – once we’ve found families for some of them, which we’re just now starting to do.”

Evie added, “We noticed right away that some of the kids were missing – Jay knows some of the pickpockets, and we all know that there has to be more Huns than we received DNA tests for – but when we started having to slow down the algorithms anyway, we decided we didn’t have to go back for the rest of the DNA samples yet.”

“Why not?” Uma snapped.

“If you look at the kids who are missing, it’s easy to see what happened when the scientists went to the Isle,” Jay commented. “Hadie, Blanche, the Huns, they all live in the mines, and the pickpockets bolt there, too, to regroup after a big haul. The sort of hauls that they would’ve tried to take off the scientists. And a _lot_ of those VKs – the Huns and the gangs of thieves – are the ones who don’t want anything to do with outsiders. They’re the ones who are going to be difficult to catch, to get DNA samples from.”

“You need to do it anyway,” Uma informed them.

“Why?” Mal asked. “Why does it matter? We can create pages on them in the database, but they won’t be ran through the algorithms yet, so… why?”

“Because then those _individual_ VKs have been approached,” Uma said as if it was obvious. “They know that you’ve seen them, that they matter, and that their time is coming, just like everyone else’s. _That’s_ why it matters.”

“Okay.” King Ben decided. “You’re right, Uma. It certainly won’t _hurt_ to create web pages for the rest of the VKs and get their DNA test results. Carlos, are you able to do that if we can get you the information?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Ben continued, “But Jay’s right, too; these are the kids that are… purposefully difficult to find, right? So, it’ll be difficult for the techs to get to them.”

“Not if we take the techs to them,” Uma pointed out, waving towards all the VKs in the room to include them in her offer.

“Yeah, I can show you were the thieves hang,” Jay agreed.

“And I know a couple Huns who could probably be convinced to lead us back to their turf,” Uma said. She looked at Jay with a smirk, saying, “But you’re going to have a bit of trouble.”

“Why?” Jay asked.

“Because you’re wrong,” Uma replied. “You’ve been gone a long time. Things change quickly on the Isle, especially as circumstances shift, and the thieves only use the mines in emergencies now. They would’ve when the techs came the first time, because it was utter _chaos_ that day. Nobody told us you were coming, and then there were _swarms_ of white coats and palace guards, and a lot of people thought it was some sort of hostile takeover. It’s no wonder the people who felt they’d committed the most obvious crimes hid out.” King Ben looked at her in alarm as she continued, “But if we show up on a smaller scale, don’t create waves – at least topside, because dealing with the Huns is gonna suck either way you cut it – the thieves are very likely to just be hanging out at Carlos’ House.”

“Really?” Carlos asked.

“They’ve pretty much taken over the place, yeah.”

“Huh.”

“We’ll go this weekend, then,” King Ben said, checking to make sure that everyone agreed.

“Us too?” Harriet asked, gesturing back to Harry.

“Do you want to?” the king asked her.

She nodded. “We’ve been here a few weeks, and it’s great here, but I’d like to check on my crew.”

He smiled carefully at her, understanding flashing through his eyes. “Of course.”

“And I want to see Gil,” Harry bit out with an accusatory look at Ben.

King Ben’s smile thinned as he turned to Harry. “I certainly wouldn’t stop you.” Looking back to Uma, he asked, “Is that it, then? The matter’s sufficiently settled?”

When Uma nodded, Princess Audrey spoke up. “Since I’m already here, I have a question for you, actually.”

“I wonder what it is?” Jay hummed, and the king turned his face into Mal’s shoulder – _hiding a smile, if Harriet didn’t miss her mark._

“How may I help you today, Princess…” Ben glanced at Uma, arching an eyebrow. “ _Bubblegum_ , was it?”

Harriet grinned down at her boots as Princess Audrey snapped, “Why the hell did you put her,” she pointed to Uma. “In my room?”

“First of all,” King Ben held up his pointer finger. “It’s not _your_ room; it’s a dorm room that you share, just like everyone else has to, even though you’ve decorated it far more than anyone else has decorated their dorm. You’ve always struggled with that fact, and—”

“I have not,” Princess Audrey objected.

“You have,” King Ben repeated patiently. “Freshman year: Ruby is your best friend who loves you enough to let you paint everything pink. Sophomore year: Jane is so tired of you as your assistant that she doesn’t care to bother with picking fights in your personal relationship, so she decides that pink is her ‘accent color’ anyway, whatever that is, and lets it go.”

“I resent that! Jane was never ‘tired’ of me.”

“Jane loves you dearly, but you were awful to her last year,” King Ben said carefully.

“Well, I’m sorry that last year sucked for me,” Audrey snapped. “Things got a little outside my control, as I’m sure you recall.”

Ben pinched the bridge of his nose as Jay said under his breath, “Don’t say something dumb because you’re hurt. You won’t mean it.”

Audrey released a deep sigh, and Harriet watched the anger melt from her shoulders. “You’re right,” she muttered, shooting the king a look that Harriet couldn’t see from behind her.

King Ben nodded in return, his smile gentle, as a silent apology and acceptance passed between them.

“I want an answer to that question,” Uma requested irritably.


	18. Chapter 18

“Politics,” King Ben said with a wave of his hand.

“’Politics?’” Princess Audrey repeated. “I don’t get it.”

“You’re really good at explaining politics when you decide to take the time to do it for someone. You paint it as this… for me, it was usually a chess game. For Jay, I’ve heard you liken it to tourney. You’re a good teacher, and I think that even left to your own devices with one another, you would – you will – try to explain Auradonian politics to Uma, and I really hope,” he glanced up at Uma. “That you take the time to listen, because I _want_ you to learn how to play this game.”

There was a beat of silence while the two girls considered that, then Uma asked grudgingly, “Why?”

“Do you want the short-term answer, or the long-term plan?” he asked.

“Both.”

“Short-term, if you understand how this all works, maybe you can start to believe that we really do have this under control, that we really are looking out for the VKs the best way we know how right now.”

“But I thought that’s why you wanted me here in the first place,” Uma said. “To help with bringing over VKs.”

“Yes and no. I have absolutely no problem with you doing that, but my goal for you, the long-term goal – that I wasn’t going to mention for a couple more years, by the way – is a bit of a… bigger picture.”

“And what’s that?” Uma asked guardedly.

Ben cleared his throat, sitting up a little straighter. “This doesn’t leave this room,” he ordered his collected classmates. “And you,” he pointed to Audrey. “Are going to try and tell me I’m stupid, and I’m going to remind you I’m the king who’s going to do it anyway, so let’s just…” he waved a dismissive hand. “Not bother with that sidebar.”

“What are ya goin’ on about?” Harry asked.

“In the most… factual sense,” King Ben replied. “Every state in Auradon has its own representative in the council of states. The states that are split even have multiple representatives,” he gestured to Audrey, “Like the Roses and the Fitzherberts reside over separate halves of South Riding. Except the Isle of the Lost, that is. They have no representative on any councils whatsoever, except the one that was formed exclusively to handle Isle affairs, and even then, those are people who, as you pointed out, Uma, have never really been in touch with the actual activity on the Isle.

“Since there are people who _will_ be spending their lives on the Isle – on what is, as much as, say, Neverland, a state of its own, with citizens of its own – shouldn’t they have a representative? And _that_ is the position that I want you to fill once you’ve graduated.”

“Actual queen of the trash pile,” Harry cackled.

“I would’ve gone with ‘protector of the Isle,’” King Ben replied. “But sure, that works, too.”

Uma stared at Ben for a long minute, and Harriet watched her think of and discard multiple responses before she asked only, “Then who’s here to look out for the VKs?”

Mal opened one of her boyfriend’s desk drawers, pulling out a tablet and handing it to Harriet. “Ideally,” she smiled encouragingly at her as Harriet took the device. “You are.”

* * *

“Do you trust me enough to close your eyes?” Jordan asked, glancing over at Harriet from the driver’s seat of her car.

“Right now?” Harriet asked in confusion, looking out at the dirt road Jordan had just turned onto. _They’d only been driving for a couple minutes, and it didn’t look like there was even anything out here to see._

“M-hm. We’re like two minutes away, and I don’t want you to see anything that will give it away.” Harriet shook her head at the silliness, smiling regardless as she closed her eyes. Soft as one of her mother’s butterfly kisses, Jordan’s hand slipped slowly underneath Harriet’s on the center console, and Harriet took her hand as Jordan said, “Thanks.”

“Thank you for this,” Harriet replied, keeping her eyes closed.

“Don’t thank me yet; you don’t even know what it is.”

“Not for lack of asking, I’ll thank you to recall,” Harriet teased.

“What can I say, I like surprises.”

Harriet admitted, “They make me nervous. I don’t like when I’m not sure what to expect.”

“Because you’re a housemother,” Jordan said, and Harriet could hear the smile in her voice as she parked the car. “I may have to make it my mission to get you to loosen up and learn how to have some fun.”

“I thought you were already doing that?”

“That is the general idea, yes.” Jordan admitted. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Harriet opened her eyes, looking around at the view outside the car. The first thing she noticed was that they were still in the forest that wrapped around Beast’s Castle and the school, the second was the picnic blanket spread out between the trees.

“Oh, this is cute!” she cooed, stepping out of the car.

“You like it?” Jordan checked, getting out and retrieving a picnic basket from her trunk. “I know it’s really simple, and kind of Auradon’s stereotypical first date, but a lot of… people like us come out here, especially while it’s warmer, so I thought if you wanted to experience life in Auradon proper… why not?”

“Yes, I like it,” Harriet repeated, rounding the back of the car to stand beside Jordan as she asked, “Do you need me to help you carry anything?”

“Nope.” Jordan closed her trunk, sliding the picnic basket onto one arm as she took Harriet’s hand. Harriet glimpsed her bookbag in the trunk, too – _with Jordan’s lamp in it, probably, just so Jordan had it with her._ “Let somebody take care of you for a change.”

Harriet squinted at Jordan as she asked, “Who gave you permission to know me so well already?”

“The universe.” Jordan grinned, the girls sitting down on the picnic blanket as she asked, “Haven’t you ever met somebody and some part of your soul just says ‘this one fits with me?’ Didn’t we talk about this last night?”

“Yeah, we did,” Harriet agreed, watching as Jordan turned on a couple lanterns and set them at opposite ends of the blanket. “But I think I’d like to change my answer a little.”

Worry flashed through Jordan’s eyes for a second, and she gave Harriet her full attention, forgetting to unpack the basket as she said, “Okay. In what way?”

“I think I said ‘whenever this has happened to me in the past’… but I don’t think this has happened to me before, not like _this_. Nobody has ever wanted to take me on a date before, and nobody has ever reacted so… with such understanding whenever I’ve effectively turned down sex. Nobody has ever—” she searched Jordan’s earnest face, her breath almost catching at the beauty in the lamplight. “Done what you’re doing right now.”

Jordan blinked. “What am I doing? The date? Because, sweetheart, there’s more where this came from; I’ll take you out every weekend from now on, in some way or another, if that’s what you want.”

Harriet shook her head. “The way you look at me, the way you just—you _listen_ when I talk, like you want to get to know the ‘me’ that is my thoughts, and feelings, and opinions, not just what I’m wearing or the shape of my body or how many kids I have hanging around me, and… Nobody has ever done that for me before. Even here on the mainland, everybody gets distracted by my clothes or my jewelry, or whatever reputation they’ve decided I deserve to have because of my last name. You… don’t.”

Jordan was giving her that look like she was afraid Harriet was going to spook and run as she said gently, “That… _listening_ and paying attention, it’s all… part of falling in love with somebody, I think.”

“Well,” Harriet smiled uncertainly. “That’s never happened to me before. But if it is happening now, I’m really glad.”

Jordan reached out to cup Harriet’s face, the picnic basket forgotten as she agreed, “Me too.”


	19. Chapter 19

On the way back to Auradon Prep, Jordan asked, “So… do you… _actually_ want to do something this weekend?”

Harriet winced. “I would like to, but I already have plans.”

“Okay, that’s cool.”

“No,” Harriet muttered. “It really isn’t.”

Jordan glanced at her in confusion before she turned her eyes back to the road. “What do you mean? Do you have something boring like a test, or a student-teacher meeting already planned?”

“No, I’m being terrible and flaky, is all. We’re going back to the Isle this weekend.”

Jordan swerved on the road, and Harriet screamed, unused to cars, before the genie corrected the car. “Sorry! Sorry,” she said as they resumed the short drive. “What do you mean ‘going back?’ You’re not giving up on Auradon already, are you?”

“What? No! No one’s going back permanently.” Harriet grabbed Jordan’s free hand and squeezed it. “No, we’re just going back to help some lab techs gather some final DNA samples from VKs. We should be back the same day.”

“Oh, okay. Are you—” Jordan glanced over at her as she pulled into the school’s drive. “—Sure you’re ready for that already?”

Harriet drew in a slow breath. “No.” Even though she’d asked King Ben if she could go, and he’d specifically asked if she wanted to, the more she thought about it, the less sure she was. But she did know one thing. “I’m ready to see my crew again, though.”

Jordan shook her head, a fond, wry smile on her face as she parked. “Housemother,” she muttered.

Harriet gave her a tortured look. “Please don’t poke fun at it.”

“I’m only joking,” Jordan assured her, lifting the hand she was holding to her lips to kiss it. “I’m sorry if I shouldn’t.”

“It’s funny…” Harriet mused. “In a way that’s not funny at all – I can handle dirt, hunger, and sickness. The only reason I think I don’t ever want to go back to the Isle is really because of the people. Some people are just truly evil, and if I never see them again, I’ll be all the better for it. Now ask me why I’m going back to the Isle.”

“Because of the people?” Jordan suggested softly, running her thumb over the back of Harriet’s hand where she was still holding it.

Harriet nodded. “Because of the people. Because the kids who have been on the Madelina, who are still there, will _always_ be my kids, even if they’re just a year or two younger than me. And I love it; I love that we’ve taken situations that could be painful, or even deadly, and we’ve made our own families out of them – families that I’d like to think are far and away better than what they would have in their own homes. I hate it because of the fact that we’re separated from each other now, but I love it for everything that it was when I was in it – for everything that it still is, I guess, just with Gil and Blanche Legume in charge now.”

Jordan grinned softly at her, asking – nearly out of the blue, in Harriet’s mind – “Has anybody ever told you how sweet you are?”

Her mind flickering back to that morning, to the lunch lady, she hazarded, “Not exactly, no.”

“Well, you are.” Jordan leaned over the console, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. “Now, come on. We’d better get inside. We have school tomorrow, after all.”

* * *

Harriet decided that it was because of the start of classes that the rest of the week went by in such a whirlwind. It didn’t help that she had the visit back to the Isle to anticipate, to both look forward to and to dread. And it didn’t help, either, that she had different classes than everyone else she knew, since she was a senior, and the others were juniors.

The first week was the start of yet another adjustment for all four of the new VKs, she knew that much, but she found that she still felt like she had too much time on her hands without her crew to care for.

When the time arrived to return to the Isle, Harriet was almost ready for it – but only almost.

There were no limousines to speak of on this trip; instead, they took an unmarked school bus – “so that they were less conspicuous?” one of the disappointed lab techs had asked, only for Uma to flatly point out that there were only three useable cars on the Isle, so they were going to draw attention regardless. The bus simply fit everyone who was going.

Between Uma, Harriet, Mal, and Jay, they’d estimated that they needed about thirty DNA samples – Uma kept swearing there would be exactly thirty-two, according to Hadie and Blanche’s last count of the Huns in the mines – so they took sixteen techs, just to be on the safe side. Also coming along was King Ben, Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos, Harriet, Uma, and Harry, Doug, and Li Lonnie.

When they’d gotten all the way to the Isle without a concrete plan because Mal and Jay had one opinion on what to do and Harry and Uma shared another, King Ben looked at Harriet, who he’d ended up sitting beside on the bus, and said, “I am perfectly okay with someone else taking charge of this… mission if it’ll stop the arguing.”

“Great,” Evie said, standing sharply from the bench seat in front of Ben and Harriet. She stalked over to the four who’d decided to continue their argument at the front of the bus, saying, “Enough, guys. We have three places we know we need to go, and only so many people, so here’s what we’re going to do.” She held a hand out to the nearest tech, asking, “Can I have a vial please?” At the tech’s skeptical look, she reminded them, “I came to help with the first round of gathering samples; I’m sure I can manage to get one.” The tech handed her what she’d asked for, and Evie slipped it into her purse. “Thank you. Now,” she turned her stubborn gaze back to Mal and Uma, declaring, “Mal, Doug, and I will go to through the TDF entrance to the mines to get Hadie’s DNA sample—”

“No,” Mal objected immediately. “I’ll be more needed in the other side of the mines with the Huns.”

“You _need_ ,” Evie shot back in a tone that was quiet and maybe a little too level. “To go see Hadie. And I,” she hesitated, looking over her best friend’s face. “I need to tell you something about the TDF.”

Confused by Evie’s seriousness, Mal relented with a quiet, “Okay.”

“Good. Now, there are eight techs sitting on the left side of the bus, and eight on the right. Uma, Harry, Harriet, and Ben, you’re in a team with the techs on the right. Get whatever informants you need, then take them into the mines for the Huns’ samples.

Mal, Doug, and I will join up with you once we’re done at the TDF, hopefully before you’ve even left the pier. Jay, Carlos, and Lonnie, take the techs on the left and find the thieves you need samples from.

“Our lovely scientists can congregate back here whenever we’re done. I’m going to assume that the thieves will be done first, and if so, Carlos and Lonnie, stay with the techs; Jay, come scout out the situation with the Huns.

“Everybody good?” She drew in a calming breath, muttering, “Let’s just…”

Jay laid a hand on her arm, finishing, “Get in, and get out. Come on, guys; let’s go!”


	20. Chapter 20

“I guess you’re with me, your majesty,” Harriet said, standing and following Uma and Harry with Ben on her heels.

Ben nodded to the sword that was once again on her hips, where, even on the perfectly safe mainland, she still couldn’t shake the feeling it belonged. “You any good with that thing?”

“It pains me that you doubt me, your majesty,” she informed him, her hand falling to the hilt as much out of habit as a hyperawareness of the fact that people were already noticing them.

She was wearing the clothes she’d left the Isle in, and the king was wearing his own outfit that Evie had put together for him the first time he’d came to the Isle, but unfamiliar faces – or faces that were _too_ familiar – always caught attention around here. After only a month away, Harriet caught herself wondering which classification she fell under.

“You can call me ‘Ben,’ you know.”

Harriet looked over at him in confusion as the unexpected statement pulled her out of her thoughts. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

He smiled at her, boyishly charming and a little too bright to be in a place like the Isle. “I said you can call me ‘Ben,’ if you want. If you’re going to be working with the ILD while you’re at Auradon Prep, I’d like to get to know you… become your friend, if you’ll let me.”

“Oh,” Harriet shrugged. “Okay. Thanks, Ben.”

It felt weird to address him like that, but it made him smile, so she could get used to it. Except, here— “Don’t smile so much, alright? You’ll catch even more attention.”

He frowned, nodding as he rolled his shoulders, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and lowered his head. “Right.”

“And don’t put your hands in your pockets;” she added, trying to be helpful and hoping he didn’t think she was nitpicking.

He looked at her in confusion. “But, the first time I came, Jay said to. It’s more casual, right?”

Harriet smiled thinly. “It also makes people think you have something _in_ your pockets which _could_ be worth taking. Jay, for the record, usually had his pockets full of things, which is why he would’ve done and said what he did.”

“Ah,” Ben nodded, slipping his hands from his pockets. “That… makes sense.”

They walked the rest of the way to the pier in silence, and Harriet wondered if she’d always been on such high alert here, or if the mainland had just softened her instincts already. When she started to smell waterlogged wood and bilge water, she finally relaxed by a couple degrees, gesturing for Ben to go between herself and Harry as they walked through the metal tube that led to the pier.

He stopped at the entrance, though, a different sort of trepidation in his eyes than the one that had flashed periodically through his eyes as they trekked here.

“What’s the matter?” Harriet asked quietly.

Harry must’ve still heard her, because he turned around from the middle of the tunnel and chuckled at what they both saw on Ben’s face. “Tied up by your own fear this time, oh king?”

 _Oh_. _Of course he wouldn’t like it here, where Harry and some of his crewmates had taken him once they’d kidnapped him._ Harriet glared up at her brother, ordering, “Fuck off, Harry.” With another gleeful chuckle, Harry obeyed, darting after Uma as Harriet returned her attention to Ben. “I get why you’re not happy to be here right now,” she promised him quietly. “But I’m sorry to say that this is the safest you’re going to be all day. Nothing’s going to happen to you on the ships; I won’t let it.”

Ben nodded, drawing in another shaky breath, and Harriet could see in his eyes that he was working himself up to walking through the tube. After a few more seconds he went in with Harriet behind him, and by the time they came out the other side, Harry and Uma were already aboard the Lost Revenge.

Harriet smiled to herself before instinctively schooling her expression into something more neutral. Uma and Harry were in the middle of a massive hug from all their crewmates, and at the middle of it with them, a head above the rest, was Gil, holding both Harry and Uma close.

She would need to join them on the Lost Revenge soon enough, but for now she went to her own ship, the Madelina, and Ben was all too happy to stay with her.

“ _Harriet!_ ” Adam Stabbington shouted gleefully from the crow’s nest as she took her first step onto the gangplank.

Harriet winced. Though she had, over the years, learned how to ignore the fact that she was still so close to the Jolly Roger, she could practically _feel_ the moment her father’s crew took notice of what was happening from the ship on her other side.

“You okay?” It was Ben’s turn to ask her.

She nodded as she stepped onto the deck of the ship, and when Fawn tackled her legs so hard that she almost fell back into him… suddenly she meant it. “Hi, honey,” she said, reaching down and hauling Fawn up into her arms where the girl wrapped her thin arms around Harriet’s neck.

“Harriet, you’re _back_!” Fawn squealed, burrowing into her shoulder.

“Just for a few minutes,” Harriet warned. “I just missed you so much that I wanted to come back and make sure you’re doing okay.”

“Oh, we’re doing great,” CJ drawled, sauntering up to Harriet and Ben. “But not as well as you, I’d bet.” She gave Ben a doubletake, stepping closer to look up at him as he tried to pull his beanie lower over his forehead, and she scoffed in disbelief when she realized she was right about who she was looking at. “ _What_ is going on here?”

“She just said,” Blanche spoke up, coming over with Grayson on her hip. “She’s just here for a visit, so leave them alone about it.”

CJ turned to Blanche, unimpressed and glaring hard, and the younger girl shoved her roughly as she walked past her and out of hearing range. Automatically, Harriet reached for Grayson, in case he fell, and Ben grabbed Blanche’s arm to steady her.

“You okay?” Harriet asked her.

“Yeah,” Blanche nodded, spoke quietly as she said, “CJ’s just…” she blew out a slow, frustrated breath. “Angry. _All_ the time.”

“Yeah,” Harriet agreed sympathetically.


	21. Chapter 21

“No.” Even though Adam hadn’t announced anyone, Gil stepped up to stand with them, Uma, Harry, Cai, and Fang behind him. “CJ’s gotten worse. Without…”

Gil trailed off, but Harry supplied while glancing at Harriet, “Us.” Gil nodded, and Harry muttered, “Well, it’s difficult, to be separated from the few people you care about.”

Gil winced, reaching over to put an arm around him. Beside Harriet, she couldn’t help but notice that Ben cringed, too. She was distracted when Adriel came and hugged her, though, and she figured out why Adam hadn’t announced Uma’s crew’s arrival when he, too, hugged her.

 _Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be back here,_ she allowed.

Casting a skeptical eye over the young crewmen, Cai said, “Uma said you needed guides to take you into the Huns’ camp, right?”

“Yes,” Ben agreed.

“Cai and Fang have agreed to take us,” Uma informed him and Harriet.

 _Which wasn’t going to be an easy task for them,_ Harriet knew. The Huns stuck to their own within the mines, and whenever people left the underground settlement, it was usually because they would rather take their chances alone aboveground than deal with whatever their situation was beneath it. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Cai shrugged as Fang pointed out, “I want my siblings off this Isle just like you guys want yours off, and for that to happen, somebody more important than me has to know they’re here.”

Watching Ben carefully out of the corner of her eye – watching the way he was watching Blanche, who he’d never seen before today – she said, “Still, I appreciate that you’re willing to put yourself in a difficult position to make sure that happens.”

Uma arched her eyebrows at Harriet in silence, but it was Gil who shot her a warning look, knowing what she was saying, but willing to protect literally _anyone_ who was hurting – even Ben, apparently. “Are we ready, then?” he asked.

 _No_ , Harriet realized as soon as he’d asked. _She wasn’t ready to leave her ship, her crew, again, and she wasn’t looking forward to going into the mines, either, because there was no way that it wasn’t going to be messy. But that was what_ she _had to do to make sure all the VKs could get off the Isle, just like everyone else._

She nodded along with the others as Ben checked, “You’re coming with us, Gil?”

“You guys are gonna need help down there; of course I’m coming.”

“Do you want me to come, too?” Blanche asked, hand falling to the sword that she had at her thigh.

The words had barely left her mouth before Gil shook his head. “Absolutely not. If something goes wrong, you’ll be needed here.”

Fawn went still in Harriet’s arms, and Harriet _hated_ it because it meant Fawn had understood what had just been said. She hated when they started getting old enough to understand the dangerous place they lived in.

“ _You’re_ needed here,” Blanche argued. “Anybody can help the Stabbingtons figure out long division, you—”

“ _I_ ,” Gil almost never raised his voice, but he did so now, just long enough to catch Blanche’s attention. “Need to keep you safe.” His voice hit a far quieter pitch as he added, “After the first time, I need to keep you _all_ safe.”

 _Ben_. It dawned on Harriet, Uma, and Ben himself all at the same time. _Gil meant that after how they’d met the first time Ben had come to the Isle, the “all” that he wanted to keep safe now was… what, his siblings?_

“You,” Harry informed Gil on a long sigh. “Are too good for the universe, Gilly.”

“Are we gonna get this over with, or not?” Cai asked impatiently.

“Now you can!” yet another new person called merrily – Hadie, boarding her ship with Mal, Evie, and Doug.

“You’re going with them, too?” Blanche asked her boyfriend, worry slicing through her features.

“They’re going into the Huns’ turf; they’re going to need as much help as they can get,” Hadie confirmed apologetically.

“Gil,” Blanche turned back to her older brother. “I really think I—”

“You—” Gil once again began to object sharply.

“Hey!” Fang spoke up over both of them. “Blanche,” she said calmly once she’d caught their attention. “You need to stay here.”

“They’re right,” Uma agreed. “I hate worst case scenarios, but just in case you haven’t noticed, Blanche, you’re kind of our last standing line of defense on the whole… I dunno, ‘parenting’ front. The kids need you here, no matter what. We will be back as soon as we’re done in the mines, and everything will be fine, but in the meantime, you’re needed here to watch the little guys.”

Hadie kissed Blanche, Evie swooped in to kiss Grayson’s forehead – Ben did a doubletake, and for a second Harriet really wanted to know how much he knew – as Uma turned on her heel and said, “Let’s go.”

As they came out the other side of the tube that connected the pier to the rest of the Isle, Hadie said, “We went to the Lost Revenge to look for you guys before we came to the Madelina, and, uh, they gave us some stuff to loan you.” He reached into the sheath strapped across his back and pulled out half a dozen swords. “Just in case anyone needed one, but they said we definitely have to bring them back.”

Ben, Evie, Mal, and Hadie all took a sword, Hadie put the last two back in the sheath, just in case they were needed later, and off they went with Fang in the lead.

“You sure you know how to use that?” Gil asked Ben, taking note of the way the king was weighing the sword in his hands. “And why’d you pick the smallest one?”

“I think so,” Ben answered. “And I picked it _because_ it’s smallest – the closest to a fencing sword.”

“Well, we definitely won’t be fencing where we’re going,” Uma informed him.

“You _fence_?” Harry asked.

“I took swords and shields for a year, but I preferred tourney.”

Gil’s face lit up, and he ignored the way Harry eyed him skeptically for it. “You play tourney?”

“I have since I was little, but I’m not on my school’s team anymore.”

“But you know how to play?” When Ben nodded, Gil said thoughtfully, “I can work with that. Why don’t you stay with me when we get up here?” He caught Mal’s gaze, Uma’s and Harry’s, making sure they were all okay with that, and when they nodded, Gil slung an arm over Ben’s shoulders, saying with an easy smile, “Great!”


	22. Chapter 22

Gil had just made a decision that made every person with him nervous, and Harriet could see that as clearly as anyone… but to Ben and Gil’s credit, even as things went predictably to hell in the mines, they kept their heads, and they worked well together. Gil called out movements that Harriet could only assume were related to tourney, and Ben followed through with a reaction that helped him fight off whoever was at his front while he and Gil guarded each other’s backs. If she hadn’t been worried about protecting herself and the guy who was at her back, Harriet was sure she would’ve enjoyed watching them fall into sync.

But she was definitely a little too busy.

Fang and Doug had gone in first, finding as many VKs as they could without being noticed and sending them back to the halfway point between the tunnels and the exit. At that halfway point, Cai and Harriet had stood in tense silence, not saying a word – _they’d never particularly had a lot to_ say _to each other, had they?_ – unless it was to send a VK the rest of the way through the tunnel, to the lab techs and the rest of the VKs waiting at the entrance to the mines.

The VKs went out, got their cheeks swabbed, and came back into their home in the tunnels.

 _It was going well. Really well. Too well,_ Harriet’s nerves eventually began to sing – and she’d been right. They were trying to create as little stir as possible amongst the Huns, filtering their kids out and back in, but eventually one of the guards at the edge of their encampment noticed the pattern, and they were made.

When Harriet and Cai heard Doug shout, heard the first clang of Fang’s sword, Cai snapped at Harriet, “Now!” but Harriet was already doing her part, already running towards the entrance to the mines as Cai ran towards the fray.

She skidded to a stop in the half-hidden entrance to the mine, barking, “They need us,” before she turned on her heel and ran back the way she’d come, a mass of VKs at her heels.

And there were more of them than she’d expected there to be. Jay was here, and Lonnie with him – _had they left Carlos alone with their techs, then?!_ – and, more than that, there were people that Harriet didn’t recognize, three in niqabs and three more in actual armor from Northern Wei. _Where had they come from?_

With no real time to ask questions or get answers, she was glad to oblige when the solitary armored lady ordered, “Let’s keep them as distracted as we can, everybody. Evie, help Doug and anyone who knows who we’re looking for to get the kids out for their tests.”

They followed her orders, Doug and Evie running for the midpoint as Jay and one of the guys in Agrabahn dress guarded the entrance to the encampment. Cai and Fang started to outright call for VKs they knew hadn’t gone through yet.

The yelling caught attention, and Harriet threw herself into a fighting stance, bracing the arm that held her mother’s sword as it clashed against the axe held by a skin-and-bones Hun who came in her direction. A far larger woman swung at Harriet’s back with a club, and Harriet lurched away from the incoming blow, barely able to tilt her head away from another swing of the axe.

“You want some help over here?” the other man in Agrabahn clothes asked merrily, slicing a wide, shallow cut – a warning glance – through the female Hun’s back.

“Sure,” Harriet grunted, twirling away from the enraged woman, and swinging her sword towards the axe handle. Her blade cut neatly through the old wood, but as Harriet turned, her attention was momentarily caught by the golden, hand-shaped pin that was keeping the man’s wrap in place. “ _Cassim_?!” _But that was impossible; he was dead!_

“Not quite,” her new ally confirmed her thoughts, falling into place at her back as he fought off two more Huns who’d come to replace the injured woman.

Harriet put the edge of her sword against the throat of the disarmed Hun, and he glared with rage as she ordered, “Get on your knees and _stay there_.”

The rage in the enemy’s eyes was suddenly inconsequential, though, compared to the bellow of fury that cut through the whole cavern. “ _You!_ ”

The older two people from Northern Wei – she had seen them before but didn’t care to think about it long enough to place them – turned as a unit towards the shout as Shan Yu himself emerged from one of the side tunnels. The man out of the duo raised his sword to Shan Yu the same way Hook’s pirates raised their beers to greet one another. “Long time, no see.”

“Feel like a rematch?” the woman asked, the flippancy in her tone not matching the steadiness in her eyes and stance.

 _That_ was when it clicked, when Harriet realized who their reinforcements were, when she realized who had to be at her back – and she had never been so glad to realize that she was on the same side as they were.

Aziz was guarding the entrance with Jay, Lil Shang was at Lonnie’s back, but she had no idea who the third person was in a niqab. Whoever she was, she’d thrown her sword to Lonnie, who was expertly wielding both, while the strange girl fought bareknuckle, helping Harry and Uma as they used their swords like sane people. Deciding she didn’t care as the fight continued around her, Harriet snatched up the wounded woman’s club, clotted the disarmed man in the head hard enough that he blacked out, and took on somebody else with the sultan of Agrabah watching her back and, by all appearances, having a fine time doing it.

“There’s only three more kids to find, guys!” Fang called out encouragement. “We’ve got this!”

Shan Yu glanced their way, ordering anyone willing to listen, “Get that girl!”

“Missed you too, Dad,” Fang snapped, edging past Shan Yu, Mulan, and Shang as they ran further into the mines.

“What girl?” one of the Huns called back to Shan Yu, and Fang’s startled laugh rang back from the tunnel.

“Two more!” Cai shouted, racing out of one of the side tunnels with a baby.

Jay ensured that she was able to get the baby out to Evie, and then Cai came back for more, already calling, “Just Yen and An left!”

“Found An!” Fang announced, a terrified toddler clutched in one arm as she wielded a sword in the other.

Hadie and Mal ran to help Fang to the tunnel exit, her eyes acid green and his the electric blue of burning sulfur. Cai raced down one tunnel, calling for the last VK, then a second tunnel, still calling for him. When she emerged from the second tunnel with another young boy in her arms, she was already calling, “Let’s get out of here!”

They all started fighting their way towards the exit as Cai darted out with Yen. _Hadie, Mal, Fang_ , Harriet started counting heads as they made it to the exit. _Lonnie, Lil Shang, Gil, Ben_ —

The girl in the gray niqab screamed the moment that she, Uma, and Harry turned away from the fight and towards the exit, a patch of red blossoming on the back of her shoulder where someone had thrown a dagger into the Auradonians careful retreat. Ben whipped back around even though he was already halfway out, Jay froze in horror, and Uma caught the girl as she started falling.

“No!” Aladdin breathed.

As he and Harriet raced towards the exit and their wounded, she heard Uma mutter, “Easy, Bubblegum. Try not to move.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is quite possibly improbable because of the "surprise guest characters," shall we say, but I don't really mind because I enjoyed writing it, so hopefully you guys don't mind too much, either.


	23. Chapter 23

Shang was limping, at least half of them were bleeding, Jay and Gil both had bruises across half their faces, and Audrey almost passed out as Uma half-dragged her through the tunnel, but they all made it far enough out of the mines that the Huns gave up on caring about them. _The crazy bastards just wanted left alone_ that _badly, apparently._

“I’m not taking Yen back in there,” Cai announced, and Harriet couldn’t help but wonder if it was for Yen’s sake, or Cai’s.

“We’ll take him to Blanche and the Madelina,” Gil said immediately, leaning against Ben and Harry in such a way that Harriet wasn’t sure who was supporting who.

They finally made it back out, standing underneath the overcast afternoon sky with the fidgety and startled techs when suddenly Uma gasped “somebody help,” staggering to keep her roommate from falling as Audrey passed out.

Jay was there immediately, scooping her into his arms as Uma repeated, “Careful, careful, careful.”

It was Mulan who finally said what they’d all noticed: “That knife is far too close to her heart for comfort.”

“We can’t take the knife out;” Harry said. “She’d bleed out before we got her to a doctor.”

“Do you have a doctor here?” Aziz demanded.

Uma snapped, “Do voodoo men count? Of course we don’t have real doctors!”

“Maybe Neva’s grandma?” Gil suggested.

Uma shook her head. “She’s on the other side of the Isle; that trip would be just as bad as if we just put her in the bus and went back to Auradon.”

“And we can do that,” Aladdin said, clearly thinking around repressed panic. “We can take her back to Auradon for real treatment; we just need someone who’s able to stabilize the knife first.”

“Anastasia Tremaine knows some medical things, maybe she can help?” Evie offered.

“Anastasia Tremaine knows how to cure headaches and gas with flowers and shit;” Cai said. “That is not the same as this.”

“Then _who_?!” Jay shouted at Cai, so angry and afraid that there were tears in his eyes as he clenched his jaw and looked back down at Audrey. Aziz gripped his shoulder.

Mal drew in a deep breath as Hadie bored a hole in the side of her head with his gaze alone, like he was trying to telepathically communicate to his twin… and maybe he was, because Mal’s nostrils flared with uncertainty, but she looked back into the mines as she said, “There is one more option.”

“We are _not_ going back in there,” Fang objected.

“Then go back to the ship,” Uma snapped. “Better yet, take the techs back to the bus. Anybody who wants to go back to the bus, go now. Then, Fang and Cai, take Yen to Blanche. Tell her everybody’s okay.”

Cai glanced between Audrey and Uma but didn’t state the obvious.

“You tell her everyone is fine,” Hadie repeated the order sharply.

“We will,” Fang assured him, pulling Cai away with Yen still in her arms. The techs seemed all too happy to return to the bus, and, glancing over at Shang as she had to take on more of his weight from his hurt leg, Mulan quietly told her own family that they should do the same.

“Go back with them, Aziz,” Aladdin ordered his son gravely.

“Dad, I want to help.”

“I know but go back to your mother. She’ll want to know what’s happened.”

“Mom’s here, too?” Jay asked, his voice cracking as he tried to speak.

Aladdin nodded. “She stayed at the bus with Carlos and the others before we caught up with you.”

Assured that Carlos wasn’t alone with a bunch of pencil pushers, Harriet asked Maleficent’s twins as Aziz left, “So, where are we going?”

Hadie looped an arm through Mal’s and led the way back to the mouth of the mine. “To talk to Dad.”

“You guys don’t have to come with us,” Mal pointed out, but the look in her eyes said that she didn’t _want_ them to.

“She has a point,” Hadie admitted. “He doesn’t really like new people in his space.”

“You’re sure he can help Audrey?” Aladdin asked.

Hadie nodded, saying cautiously, “He can.”

“Will he?” Jay asked. “He… usually has notoriously high prices for what he can do.”

“For most people, yes,” Mal agreed. “But…”

She trailed off until Ben pressed, “Mal?”

“Guys,” Uma snapped. “She’s bleeding down Jay’s arm; can we get a move on?”

Mal swallowed a sigh, jerking her chin towards a turn in the labyrinth. “We go this way – Hadie, Jay, Audrey, and I.”

“I’m coming,” Aladdin insisted, but Mal shook her head.

“He’ll help her for me, in exchange for my coming to see him at all,” Mal explained. “If he’s in the right mood. Too many people, and he definitely won’t be in the right mood.”

As the four left, Harriet watched Aladdin lean against the wall of the dark mine and put his head in his hands, a completely different man than the cocky one who had been at her back in their fight with the Huns. Doug and Evie stood together, murmuring in low, frightened voices, Uma and Harry were huddled together, and Gil was getting Ben as comfortable as he could be sitting on an overturned mining cart.

Harriet moved to stand beside Aladdin, leaning against the wall like he was. Instinctively, like she would’ve when she was trying to get one of her crewmembers to talk to her, she just shared the silence with them until they were willing to talk, and if they never were… well, then she was there for them, anyway.

“I don’t know if you’ll understand what I mean,” Aladdin murmured. “But I called her father before we brought her. Of course I did. Her mom doesn’t even know she’s here, but I told her dad she’d be safe – that _I_ would take care of his kid, because she wanted to be here, because she was worried about Jay, and King Ben, and the rest of her friends, and she wanted to help. I knew I should’ve told her ‘no,’ too, in the first place, but we didn’t – Jasmine and I – and if I lied to King Phillip… if she’s not okay—”

“She will be,” Harriet broke in. “Hades is kind of an urban legend for what he’s capable of. He’ll do what he can for Mal’s sake, and Princes Audrey will be fine.” _At least she hoped so._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, these last couple improbable chapters also exist because I wanted to add in another nod to D3 with the idea of the Hades & Audrey... can we even call them interactions? I'll settle for calling them interactions, I guess.


	24. Chapter 24

As it turned out, Harriet had been more correct than _any_ of them had dared hope for. Though they would never know how, Audrey walked back out fifteen minutes later right alongside Jay, Mal, and Hadie as if she’d never been hurt at all.

“How is that possible?” Evie demanded, one of the first ones to recover from the happy shock of it.

Jay shrugged, holding Audrey close. “I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Aladdin asked, though his eyes said that he didn’t care any more than Jay.

“Hades made me wait outside his… alcove, or whatever. I mean I have no idea what happened in there.”

“Mal?” Aladdin asked, turning to her for an explanation.

Mal shook her head. “Let’s just say that the barrier doesn’t control all biological magic as much as mainland Auradon would like to think it does.”

“Like how Ursula can still transform into a creepy octopus lady,” Gil commented.

“Exactly. Now, let’s get out of here, shall we?” She shivered, looking around the dank underground. “I hate these mines.”

“I agree,” Audrey said, wrapping an arm around Jay’s waist so that he stayed at her side as they all followed Mal out – all but Hadie, that was.

He walked them to the edge of the mine, and when she realized he had stopped, Mal turned to ask, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Nah. This is home sweet home for me, remember, with Dad?”

“Don’t you want to go check on Blanche?” Mal asked, shifting like something was suddenly keeping her there.

Hadie shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets, and Ben’s words from earlier rang in Harriet’s ears. _“It’s more casual, right?”_ He looked past Mal to Gil, saying, “Gil will check on her; she’ll be fine. She needs to be with someone besides me right now.”

“Why?”

“Because she has the opportunity to be,” Hadie answered on a shrug.

Mal continued to stare at her twin, and Hadie stared back in a sort of silent communication that was so intense it sent an uncomfortable chill up Harriet’s spine. Mal kicked at the loose clumps of dirt on the ground before suddenly turning and walking away. “Come on, guys,” she called, and they all fell into line behind her, leaving Hadie at the entrance to the mines and leaving Harriet with a strange knot in her stomach.

Once they’d left the mines behind them, Audrey said, “Sultan?”

“Yeah?”

“You, ah… wouldn’t have to tell my parents about that knife incident, if you don’t want to. I say, ‘no harm, no fowl.’”

Aladdin scoffed. “Of course I have to tell them. And you,” he pointed at Jay, fondness sparkling in his eyes despite his wry smile. “Have been a bad influence on her.”

“No,” Doug objected. “She would’ve said something like that long before Jay entered the picture.”

“Thank you,” Jay joked, knocking his shoulder against Doug’s, and then grinning when Ben’s assistant tilted sideways for a second.

“Speaking of ‘knife,’” Uma asked Audrey. “Why did you _give yours away_?”

“Because Lonnie taught me hand-to-hand, not sword-fighting. I was more comfortable without it.”

“And we see how that worked out for you. When we get back to school, you and I are spending time in the gym, and I’m teaching you how to use a sword.”

“Why? When will I ever use that skill?”

“Well, _apparently_ , you never know, now do you?”

“Hey,” Harriet spoke up. “Relevant question: Jay, were you able to get all the DNA samples we needed?”

Jay nodded. “The techs have them. Gathering the thieves’ samples turned out to be easy; Uma was right about them congregating in Carlos’ House now, and we got to them quickly enough that they were all still there.”

“Good.”

“Of course I was right,” Uma broke in, just because she could.

“And when did the extra backup become part of the plan?” Harriet asked, gesturing to indicate the sultan and princess.

“When they showed up outside the mines while we were waiting to hear from you and Cai,” Mal replied.

“Jasmine and I had been holding a frankly awful number of meetings while we were in the state after dropping our boys off at the school,” Sultan Aladdin supplied. “When Shang and Mulan found out that we were still around, they asked us if we’d like to join them in being, like you said, ‘extra backup.’ We said we would – to see the Isle for ourselves, and, in my case, to let off a little steam after being in meetings for a week and a half.”

“Things like this are just a way ‘to let off a little steam’ for you?” Uma asked dubiously over her shoulder as she led them through an alleyway.

The sultan nodded. “They are – or… they were more frequently, once upon a time.”

“What about Generals Li and Fa?” Mal asked.

“From what I gathered,” Sultan Aladdin said carefully. “When they so much as heard a rumor that their daughter was going off to, uh, very literally fight the Huns, they flew to Auradon state, but got here just a little too late to be on your bus out.”

“How _touching_ …” a masculine voice purred, the same second the hairs on the back of Harriet’s neck stood up in warning, the same second there was a stir behind her.

Along with everyone else, she whipped around to see the Legume twins approaching them, blocking off one end of the alleyway. _And if both twins were standing on one side, that meant there was only one person who they trusted to be blocking the other way out._ Harriet had her sword unsheathed, and she was glad to see the others did, too, as she turned to check their options. She was unsurprised to see Gaston blocking the other side of the alleyway.

Uma’s tone dripped with the same irritation she’d use on an annoying stepsister as she, nearest Gaston, looked up at him – salt and pepper hair, but still straight and tall as ever, and meaner besides – and demanded, “What do you want?”

“Just a reunion with my boy,” Gaston replied, oozing the sort of sweetness that was so openly false that it made the knot in Harriet’s stomach worse. “My ole drinking buddy, Hook, mentioned he had graced us with his presence today.”


	25. Chapter 25

“What do you want, Dad?” Gil asked, stepping up beside Uma and trying to draw Gaston’s attention to him.

Gaston shoved Gil away with an ease that very few could’ve managed, snarling, “Not you, oaf.”

Gil stumbled back, and Aladdin steadied him, stepping closer to Uma to point out, “There’s three of you and eleven of us. This isn’t a good idea for you. Let us by. Now.”

“You don’t give out the orders around here,” Gaston snapped, looking past Aladdin, and finally finding Ben in the midst of the group.

Uma poked her sword harmlessly at his chest, just so his gaze snapped away from Ben. “Neither do you, last time I checked.”

Harriet was keeping one eye on the twins, but one of the boys moved suddenly, and quicker than she anticipated, pressing his sword against the nearest throat – _Evie, gods; she never should’ve let her get to the back of the group_. He dragged her back against his chest with a cruel laugh. “Now there’s only ten of you!” he said cheerfully. Brushing Evie’s hair out of her cheek with the point of his sword, he asked her softly, “Remember me, beautiful?”

“Junior, stop it!” Gil ordered from between clenched teeth.

Mal marched straight up to Gaston’s eldest, eyes blazing. “I have heard your name far too often today, and I’m mad enough right now that I will kill you with a smile. _Let her go_.”

Talking wasn’t really Mal’s style, and for a moment Harriet wondered why she was keeping her sword down instead of just – if it was down to it – putting her money where her mouth was.

The next second, Harriet got her answer. With Junior distracted by Mal, Evie wrenched free, punching him in the nose with her ring-covered fist, and when he stumbled back, she stabbed him with her sword below the belt. Uma laughed with glee as Mal grabbed Evie’s hand and all eleven of them ran at Gaston. Rather than allow himself to be trampled, the man who had come across as so dangerous flattened himself to the wall of the alley and let them pass while already screaming for the twins to get them.

Harriet grabbed Mal’s arm and shoved her and Evie ahead of her so that she was taking up the rear as they ran.

The twins and Gaston followed them, and at one point, Harriet felt a blade slice her arm, cutting flesh and her shirt, and she cried out, but the extra rush of adrenaline only made her run faster. Gil was the next-closest person to her – he’d been shoving people ahead of him, too, because of course he had, he was Gil – and when she and the twins caught up to him, Junior cut him the same way, enraged despite his agony and wasting energy by swinging at whatever he could manage to cut.

No one joined the chase, though, and Harriet was glad for that as they finally, finally saw the van in the distance.

“Open the door! Open the door!” they started shouting as they approached, and Carlos pulled the doorhandle a split second before Harry and Jay, at the front of the pack, hit the van. They scrambled in.

 _Jay, Harry, Audrey, Doug, Aladdin, Uma, Mal, Evie, Aladdin._ Herself. _Gil._

As Carlos shut the door behind Gil, Sultana Jasmine was already pushing the gas pedal. Harriet flung herself into her seat back beside Ben, catching her breath and releasing a strangled cry when she let her back hit the seat. Ben, who was pale except for two bright spots of exertion on his cheeks, asked, “Are you good?”

She nodded, still catching her breath.

No other answer was acceptable yet, not with him, and not when their getaway car was a school bus that could only go so fast despite the sultana’s best efforts. Gaston and his twins were pounding on the bus, running alongside it, and other people joined in doing _that_.

 _It was mildly satisfying to see Gaston Junior pass out from his pain in the middle of the road_ , she thought with a thin smile. _Good for Evie._

Harriet closed her eyes against the noise of all the people who were still banging on the bus as Ben asked, “Gil? Are you—” he stumbled over what he was saying, commenting with horror in his voice, “Your back!”

“Oh,” Gil’s tone was casual, brushing off the concern. “It’s not bad, for a sword cut. Blanche knows how to stitch people up; so can Neva’s grandma. She’s the old witch from Clan Dunbroch’s territory. It’s kind of funny, how she’s so old, but I’ve never noticed her to get any older. I wonder if—”

Warily, Ben asked, “Is all of that from sword fights?”

“What?” Gil asked, and Harriet opened her eyes to see the moment when Gil realized what Ben meant, and his gaze dropped to his lap for a second.

Harriet’s heart clenched, for the horror in poor, innocent Ben’s face, and the uncertainty and embarrassment on Gil’s. Whenever he’d gone shirtless as he worked on the Lost Revenge, or even repaired things for her on the Madelina, she’d seen the pirate’s back before, webbed with scars from boyhood whippings courtesy of Gaston. On the Isle, such things were hardly rare – that was why she, Blanche, and Uma operated the network they did… or they _had_ – but for Ben it would be a shock.

“It’s okay,” Gil assured him. “That was a long time ago, and I live on Uma’s ship now. I’m okay, I promise.”

At the front of the bus, oblivious to the brothers’ conversation, Sultana Jasmine asked, “What _happened_?”

“A little bit of everything,” her husband informed her from the seat behind her. “We have all the DNA samples, right?”

“We do. The techs brought them all back. Except Hadie’s?”

“Does anyone have Hadie’s DNA test?” Sultan Aladdin called back into the bus.

“Yes.” Mal handed the vial off to one of the techs. “There you go.”


	26. Chapter 26

“Where are the generals and their kids?” Aladdin asked suddenly.

Sultana Jasmine glanced at him worriedly. “Relax, Aladdin. They took the car back that we came in with the four of them, one of the techs, and all but the one DNA test. They should already be safely in Auradon.”

Aladdin blew out a breath, running his hands through his hair. “Good.”

“My love…” The sultana gave him another concern-filled glance as they finally passed through the barrier, the bridge to Auradon appearing in front of them as she drove. “What happened?” she asked again.

Sultan Aladdin pointed to Princess Audrey, muttering, “She almost _died_.”

“But she didn’t,” Jay pointed out, pulling his girlfriend close. “She didn’t.”

“Forget that,” Uma waved their concern away, gleefully informing the sultana, “Evie stabbed Junior Legume in the dick with her sword!”

The sultana glanced at Uma in alarm. “Is that some sort of Isle… euphemism? Allegory?”

“No.” Uma was still beaming as she made a stabbing motion with her hand. “Sword in sword, quick as she can turn around.”

Uma started cackling, and Sultana Jasmine glanced back at Evie through the rearview mirror. “Evie?”

“Oh, my gods…” A slow smile was taking over Evie’s face as she realized aloud, “I actually did that, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did, girl!” Uma cried triumphantly.

Evie sat back in her seat, murmuring, “Yeah, I did.”

Sultana Jasmine turned her gaze back to the road, shaking her head, but not in a way that made her seem disapproving. “Alright, then.”

“Hey, guys?” Gil said uncertainly.

“Shut up, Gil,” Harry hissed from the seat across from Gil. “Don’t say a word, just stay _shut up_.”

 _Oh._ It dawned on everyone in the bus at the same time, and far too many pairs of eyes swung to King Ben – King Ben who was staring straight at Gil… Gil, who wasn’t supposed to have gotten into the bus with them in the first place.

“And then what happens?” Gil asked Harry quietly, two pairs of blue eyes that were both bigger and sadder than ought to ever be allowed as Gil reached out and took Harry’s hand across the aisle.

Ben was working on forming words, and eventually a slow determination started to build behind his eyes, and he began, “Gil, if you want t—”

Gil shook his head, cutting Ben off to repeat, “It’s okay. If there’s such a thing as a Legume ban, like Uma said,” Ben winced, but Gil continued gently, “Then you need to take it apart the right way. A way that doesn’t hurt anybody.”

“And if such a way doesn’t exist?” Ben asked carefully.

“Then do what you can, to get as close to that as you can. In the meantime, Hadie was right.”

Mal asked, “How?”

“He said I would check on Blanche, and I will, because she needs me to. No matter what we said, she’s not ready to be in charge of both crews, and I wouldn’t ask her to be.” Gil looked between Harry and Uma. “We talked about it before you left, and we decided that the Lost Revenge needed me, and they still need me. Blanche still needs me – and that’s my _sister_ … and I _really_ want to do,” he turned just enough to catch Ben’s eye, just for a second. “Whatever I can to take care of my siblings.”

Ben bit his lip, looking out the window with his hands clenched white-knuckle in his lap, and Harriet didn’t miss when his shoulders started shaking with silent tears.

“Right now,” Gil finished. “That means going back to the Isle, because somebody needs to see things through on that end, too. Please, can you turn the bus around?”

Sultana Jasmine stopped in the middle of the bridge, but she didn’t turn the bus, and Harry’s voice cracked, as close to begging as he would ever come as he said only, “Gilly…”

Blinking quickly now, Gil turned to Uma for help. Uma looked at Gil for a second before she sat up straight, drew in a deep breath, and said – twisting a sword in her own heart, Harriet knew – “Gil’s right. And you’re right, Harry. But…” She grinned despite the sadness in her eyes. “As – what did you say? – queen of the trash pile, Gil’s right.”

Sultana Jasmine turned the bus around, and they drove to the edge of the barrier in silence.

“Besides,” Gil said, standing from his seat. “We promised to bring the crew their swords back.”

“Hadie still has the one he used, I think,” Mal said apologetically, standing and giving Gil the sword she’d used.

“That’s okay. It’ll give him an excuse to come visit Blanche tomorrow.”

Gil turned to Ben, staring down at him before he crouched down, taking the sword Ben had used from underneath the bench seat. Eyelevel with Ben, he promised under his breath, “I’m _okay_. It’s okay, little brother, I know you’re doing everything you can for us.”

Ben was struggling to catch his breath through his noiseless tears, and when Gil reached out and hugged him – when _Gil_ , in that moment, was the one comforting _Ben_ – Harriet had to look away as tears pricked her own eyes.

Releasing Ben after a long minute, Gil reached under Evie’s seat, pulled out the last sword he needed, and met her eyes, too. “We’re still keeping Gray safe, and we always will. He’s kind of our baby, too, and even though I know you worry about him, because that’s what the good moms do, we’ll keep him safe – right up to the second when you bring back one of those fancy limos for him once you’re ready. Only once you’re ready. It takes some people twenty years to talk about this; give yourself a couple if you need to. And whenever you’re ready, he will be, too. I promise.”

When he stood up, Evie jumped up, too, pulling him into a tight hug that he fumbled to manage while carrying four swords. “We _will_ come back for all of you. _I_ promise.”

“Guys, they’re starting to notice we’re back,” Sultan Aladdin said apologetically, eyeing the barrier line warily, where villains and VKs were starting to notice the loitering bus.

Gil pulled away from Evie’s hug. “I know you will.” He made his way up the aisle, kissing Harry’s forehead, then Uma’s. He braced against the doorframe as Sultana Jasmine broke through the barrier and left the bus running. “And until then – I’ll see you guys soon.”

He gave them a little wave as Carlos opened the bus door, then he stepped out and vanished into the crowd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't give myself permission to have feels over Gil, and yet here we are...


	27. Chapter 27

The ride back to the mainland was a silent one, with people splitting away into smaller groups as they disembarked. Harriet, for one, had no idea what to do with herself after everything that had just happened inside of an afternoon.

“Hey, Evie,” Ben said under his breath as they stepped off the bus in front of Harriet.

“Yeah?”

“On the bus, Gil said something kind of crazy to you, didn’t he?”

“I noticed,” Evie replied just as quietly, and there was a steadiness to her gaze that Harriet hadn’t _ever_ seen, at least on this topic. “You mean about me being a mom?” Ben nodded, and Evie informed him, “Grayson’s mine. That’s what I wanted to tell Mal back when we went to the TDF.”

Ben drew in a deep breath, looking down at his shoes. “Junior?” he guessed flatly. Evie nodded, and Ben shoved his hands into his pockets, looking out across the green between the school and castle as he released a deep sigh. “Whenever you’re ready to talk about it,” he said slowly. “If you ever decide you want to… I don’t know, come for King Adam the way you came at Junior today? You let me know, and I’ll create the space for that to happen.”

“You’re gonna go talk to him, aren’t you?” Uma asked Ben, hitting that wavelength where she just _knew_ him as she approached with Harry.

“I’m going to try,” Ben agreed. “Anybody else want to come?”

Uma took half a step forward before she paused, turning to Evie with a question in her eyes. “You or me today?” she asked.

“Both is fine,” Ben said.

Uma shook her head, still watching Evie, respecting her right to privacy, in a way, but also pushing her, ever so carefully.

Everyone who was left outside the bus watched the war that happened behind Evie’s eyes, but she eventually raised her chin, looped her arm with Ben’s. “You know what, screw it,” she declared. “I already beat Junior today; let’s just ride this wave, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s,” Ben agreed with a smile.

“Doug?” Evie reached for him, and he was there, his hand sliding into hers and squeezing tightly.

Sultana Jasmine stepped closer, laying a hand on Evie’s shoulder. “Do you want a witness or two?”

“Are you sure that won’t cause problems politically?” Evie asked.

The sultana shook her head. “I can compartmentalize, regardless of what anybody else does, and right now, I say I’m working one of my ILD cases.”

“Thank you,” Evie said, drawing in one more steeling breath before she led the way to Beast’s Castle between Ben and Doug.

The sultan hung back with his wife for a second, asking her, “Evie is involved in one of your specialty cases?”

Sultana Jasmine nodded. “There’s a reason I don’t tell even you about _everything_ that I do – to protect the privacy of people like Evie.”

“And that’s fine,” he agreed, looking after the trio. “But can I ask, then… who’s talking to Doug, helping him work through… his side of this?”

She shook her head as the couple began to follow the teenagers. “No one that I know of.”

“Well, that’s going to change starting today,” Aladdin informed her.

Just before they stepped out of Harriet’s hearing range, she heard the sultana remark, “If this goes how it should, I have a feeling a lot of things are going to start changing in one way or another.”

* * *

But nothing changed, not that Harriet could tell, not right away. A month passed, and the only difference she noticed was that Ben was hanging around the school a little more frequently than he had the first week of classes.

Wondering if she was reading too much into things, she eventually asked Uma about it.

“It’s not something that’s supposed to be spread around,” her fellow pirate informed her where they were sitting in her pink dorm room helping each other with homework. “But he’s been living in one of the faculty’s quarters. Things didn’t go the way he wanted them to the day we came back from getting the DNA tests, and the queen asked him to leave.”

Harriet gaped. “The _queen_ asked him to?”

Uma’s eyes sharpened with hatred, and Harriet wasn’t sure she understood why until Uma muttered, “For his own _safety_ , if Audrey is to be believed.”

“Because of King Beast?” Harriet was horrified to understand.

Uma nodded. “Our poor queen apparently has shit luck with exactly one type of man.”

Uma was drawing connections between Gaston and Beast that Harriet was deeply concerned to realize she agreed with. “How can we help?”

“He’s told us all to stay out of it, says now it’s between him and his dad.”

Harriet looked at Uma’s pinched expression, realizing, “You think he’s protecting us that way?”

“Yeah, probably, but unless somebody wants to pull off an assassination, I’m not sure how to get him to understand that he doesn’t have to.”

“Uma!” Harriet hissed, glancing towards the closed door.

“I know, I know; I’m just… as frustrated as anyone else with this ban right now.”

 _It was situations like this_ , Harriet thought to herself as she twirled her pencil nervously in her hand, _that made her glad she felt no attraction towards the opposite sex._

* * *

With the general mood among the VKs at an all-time low, and Harriet at more of a loss with how to help people than she’d ever felt before, she found herself retreating, just a little. She checked in with Harry and Uma, kept tabs on Ben, Evie, and even Doug… but amid their collective discouragement, she found herself leaning into her new relationship with Jordan.

Jordan noticed her guilt, and it took weeks of discussing it for her to convince Harriet that it was okay. That if she needed to take a step back from a situation where she felt helpless, and do something for herself, to help her own sanity, then that was _okay._

But Harriet had to wonder, _when had the mainland also become a place where some of the kids had to work just to be “okay?” When had the mainland become a place where she felt guilty on the days when she even managed to feel_ good _? And could she do anything to change that, for herself or the others?_

They were questions she didn’t have answers to – none of them did – and she hated it.


	28. Chapter 28

Instead of letting her dwell on what she hated and what worried her, though, Jordan pushed her towards the lighter side of life just often enough to keep her sane. She took her on picnics and canoe rides in the forest, and down to the Lavender Lounge. They had dance offs in their dorm room, and laughed until they cried, and when her tears turned sad and the worries won for a little while, Jordan was learning how to hold her through that, too.

Five weeks into life at boarding school, and in the middle of it all, Harriet was still learning how to be in love at seventeen. How to feel like a normal seventeen-year-old at all. As it turned out, it had its moments of being great, and she chose to try and focus on those instead.

Because it _was_ fun to be a part of study groups for herself instead of helping middle-schoolers with their homework and then muddling through her own homework later. It _was_ fun to go to tourney games and cheer for her friends. It was fun to let Audrey paint her nails pink, decide it was disgusting, and redo them in her usual black lacquer.

In its own way, it was even fun to hide her relationship with Jordan, if she didn’t think about the fact that they _had_ to hide it. It was fun to sneak away to the forest with her, to sneak down to the world hidden beneath their world that was the Lounge, it was fun to lock their dorm room door and kiss Jordan against it until Jane knocked on the door and startled them both.

As much as Harriet hated what was happening in the lives of her friends, as much as she was worried for them, she was learning to love her life here exactly as much.

* * *

 _Today was a bad day, though,_ Harriet admitted, watching some of her friends at a different table in the courtyard cafeteria where they all took their lunches. Seniors and juniors shared the same lunch period, so Harriet was sitting with Jordan, Uma, and Harry, watching the first four VKs sitting with Ben and Audrey at a different table. _There were too many hunched shoulders and pinched frowns over there for them to be discussing anything good_ – but, as she watched, Lonnie marched over with Chad, squished onto the bench as well, and said something to them all. Whatever she said, it left them watching her in confusion once she got up.

Chad stayed at that table, speaking with furtive glances at his surroundings, and Lonnie came over to Harriet’s table, setting her tray down beside Jordan’s and sitting as she told Uma and Harry, “I don’t know _exactly_ what’s been going on with you guys, but like I just told the others, you need to go someplace where you can loosen up and have some fun.”

“That sounds great,” Harry said. “But we’re still in Boreadon, so…”

“ _So_ , meet me tonight – all four of you – in the cafeteria. Quarter after eleven. Don’t be late.”

“PM?” Harry asked, suddenly sounding a little more intrigued.

Lonnie smiled smugly, nodded, as Jordan asked in surprise, “Really? Usually you have a stick up you-know-where about who you allow, boss lady.”

Lonnie rolled her eyes, but both she and Harriet knew Jordan was right. “Nothing wrong with being protective of my people,” Lonnie muttered. “But these two don’t deserve the erasure they’re getting either.”

“Says who?”

“If I’ve got things right,” Lonnie pointed at Harry – “Gil” – then at Uma. “And Mal.”

“Oh, _really_?” Jordan asked, eyeing Uma curiously.

Harriet poked her in the shoulder, ordering, “Don’t ask. If it’s dead, you let that damn dead dog _lie_ , for all of our sakes.”

Jordan chuckled, turning her attention back to her tray as she said, “Okay, then.”

Lonnie grinned, picking her tray back up and leaving their table, too, as she said cheerfully, “I’ll see you all tonight.”

* * *

Somehow, it hadn’t crossed Harriet’s mind that Audrey would be joining Ben and the VKs in their introduction to the Lavender Lounge, and some new instinct that she hated made her draw up short, Jordan at her side, as she saw the tell-tale bouncy ponytail at the door to the walk-in freezer.

“As much as I like Audrey, are we sure she can be trusted to keep quiet about this place?”

Lonnie stepped between the girlfriends, saying casually, “Oh, yeah. She’s known this place exists as long as I have, she’s just never had a good enough reason to talk about it or join us before this year, before tonight.”

“What’s so important about tonight?” Harriet asked.

Lonnie put an arm around each girl’s shoulders, bringing them forward with her towards the others as she explained, “Personally, I like to let people get settled into the school year before I bring them down here and blow their minds. Tonight is the night where a lot of freshmen are shown into the Lounge for the first time, and I think it would be good for you, Audrey, to be here for that.”

“For PJ,” Audrey realized, a sparkle hitting her eyes as she grinned.

“Phillip, Jr.,” Harriet recalled the freshman she’s seen sitting with Lonnie and Audrey her first morning here, Audrey’s little brother.

Lonnie nodded. “Chad’s texting me the names of all the new kids that are showing up, and PJ’s already down there. Also,” she turned suddenly to Jay, gripping his shoulders with a bright smile and serious gaze. “For the record, in front of the gods, your girlfriend, and the king of this country himself, if any of the assistants down there are punished for being here, I know where you sleep, and I will shave your head. Okay? Okay.” Jay was left blinking rapidly as Lonnie pulled the walk-in door open. “Welcome to the Lavender Lounge, everybody.”

“What’s… ‘The Lavender Lounge?’” Ben asked her in confusion.

“Oh, I’ve wanted you to ask me that for _years_ ,” Lonnie said, slipping her arm into his as she opened the door that revealed Chad and the dungeon staircase. “And I’m genuinely thrilled to finally be showing you.”

“To be showing me the… dungeon… that we purposefully hid in the school remodel?” Ben asked, looking from Lonnie to Chad to dubiously casting a glance at the steep stairs.

“To be showing you the kingdom of _my_ people,” Lonnie corrected grandly, leading them all down the staircase. “Welcome, one and all, to the Lavender Lounge.”


	29. Chapter 29

The other VKs understood what the Lounge was the moment they turned the corner and saw the main room.

Uma laughed in shock, muttering, “Maybe you aren’t so boring after all, Boreadon…”

Harry turned and waggled his eyebrows at Jay, cajoling, “Oh, gooorgeous face?”

For all that she had improved – at least according to Jane LaFae – Harriet seriously doubted Audrey would ever lose her jealous streak, as evidenced by the way that she immediately whirled to stick her finger in an amused Harry’s face. “I have other people that I want to see enjoying themselves down here tonight; do not make me watch you instead. Got it?”

“Fine,” Harry hummed, eyes lighting up in a new way as he noticed the drink cooler in the corner.

 _Oh, great_ , Harriet thought with a roll of her eyes.

“Hey, Jordan?” Lonnie asked. “I want to talk to Ben for a bit. Can you show the others around?”

Jordan shrugged gamely. “Sure.”

“I better stay with Harry,” Uma decided, probably thinking something along the same lines as Harriet as she made her way towards the edge of the room where he’d already wandered off to.

“Can I come with you two?” Mal asked Lonnie, taking Ben’s hand in her own.

Lonnie agreed, and Carlos and Evie opted to stay in the main room and play wallflowers – Lonnie’s heart was in the right place, Harriet knew, but this wasn’t Carlos and Evie’s sort of scene – so it was just Jordan, Harriet, Jay, and Audrey who made their way further into the decorated dungeon.

“Can we find PJ?” Audrey asked Jordan immediately. “I won’t bother him, but I just want to check that he’s okay.”

“That works,” Jordan agreed, and they started peeking into the cells, looking for PJ while they were also able to explore the setup.

He wasn’t in the main room, the cell with the dancefloor, or in one of the game rooms, where teens could play everything from chess to twister and just _be_ with each other.

Looking into the movie room – there was an old television in here, and a few couches where couples could curl up with each other safely in a public space – Harriet turned back to ask Audrey, “That’s him, right?”

Audrey looked into the room as well, the green light coming from the television casting eerie lights across the faces of the movie watchers. She turned to grin at Harriet, nodding towards the brunet boy lying on a couch, limbs tangled with another boy who Harriet suspected was a year or two older than PJ. It was such a sweet, domestic scene, and Harriet hated that they had to come down here for it to happen, hated that they couldn’t just sit like that and enjoy movies in the common rooms like everyone else.

“Yeah,” Audrey whispered. “That’s him.”

“Aww,” Jay whispered, peering in above Audrey’s head to look into the room. Behind Harriet, Jordan snorted the second Jay’s mouth dropped open. “Rafi! Is that Rafi?!” Jay looked to Audrey for answers. “PJ and Rafi?!”

Audrey grinned, nodding. “They’ve been together longer than we have.”

“Nobody told me?!”

There was a stir inside the room as PJ bolted upright, eyes widening with horror as he noticed them all in the doorway. Rafi shot to his feet, swearing as he noticed Jay.

“Hey, no,” Audrey whispered soothingly, gesturing for the boys to join them in the hall. “Come here, guys; let’s not interrupt the movie for everyone else.”

 _Or one of their few moments of feeling that their relationships were normal_ , Harriet added to herself.

Jordan sighed weightily, noticing, like Harriet had, how much space the boys put between each other as they slipped into the hall. Audrey put an arm around her worried brother, asking Jordan, “Is there somewhere we can talk?”

Jordan considered for a second before she took them back into one of the bedrooms, saying, “It’s the closest we’ve got down here, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Jay assured her.

They had barely stepped into the room before Rafi said haltingly, “Listen, your highness, I can explain.”

“Yeah,” Jay sat down on the edge of the bed, Audrey and PJ with him. “So can I. Let me just spare you the worry, okay, Raf?” He caught Rafi’s eye, held his gaze as he announced, “I really, truly do not give a damn who you love or what you do. Treat each other well, and as long as being in a relationship doesn’t affect your job – honestly, I probably wouldn’t even know if it did, I’m still so unfamiliar with what you do – then I don’t care. You are my advisor and my _friend_ ; I want you to be happy, and it’s as simple as that. Alright?”

Rafi looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “Really?”

“Yeah, ‘really,’” Jay agreed with a crooked smile. “That’s okay with you, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.”

Relief washed over Rafi’s face as Jay checked, “Are we still good, Raf?”

“Yes, absolutely.” He chuckled disbelievingly. “We are if you are.”

“Good.” Jay shoved back onto his feet, waving PJ and Rafi towards the door. “Now, go have fun while you can. Go finish your movie or something. Get outta here.”

Rafi laughed, reaching out to take PJ’s hand.

“Hey, PJ,” Jay said, narrowing his eyes teasingly at the prince of Auroria as they left. “Be nice to my guy, alright?”

PJ turned back to Jay, the sheer level of disbelief on his face make Harriet bite back a laugh. “’Be nice to _my’_ sister, man,” he shot back.

Jay smirked, murmuring, “That’s fair, that’s fair.” He took Audrey’s hand, helping her onto her feet as he suggested, “Come on, let’s go check on Carlos and Evie.”

They went back to the main room to find that Carlos, Evie, Uma, and Harry had all squeezed around a table with Ben, Lonnie, and Mal. For a bunch of teenagers in the middle of a hangout, they looked to be having an awfully serious conversation, and Jordan slipped her hand into Harriet’s as they approached the table anyway.


	30. Chapter 30

“I know,” Lonnie was saying to Ben. “That maybe this is bad timing, and that you have a _lot_ on your place, like, all the time, but we’re juniors this year, and I just…” she looked around at their surroundings. “Wanted you to see this place. Wanted you to see what it means to us.

“You said at cotilion that Uma got you to see that the people on the Isle are your people, too. And I don’t… know that I need you to do something immediately, and I don’t know that I need you to do something huge. But I need you to see that something needs to be done. I need you to hear me when I say that these people, these kids who live lies because they feel like they have to, they’re _my_ people in the same way that the VKs are Uma’s. But _these kids_ , for _everything_ that they are, are your people, too. And I guess,” Lonnie blew out a breath, looking down at the soda can in her hand before she met Ben’s gaze again. “I guess that’s all I have to say.”

“I hear you,” Ben promised her. His thoughts winded somewhere besides the Lounge as he said, “No one deserves to have to go underground just to safely live the life they want, and I will see what I can do.

“But, as someone who has travelled extensively across this whole country… take a little heart, Lonnie. Despite what the supposed ‘mainstream’ opinion may be, times are changing, individual opinions are changing. A new generation is starting to step up.

“VK adoption has been… almost _molded_ into… a very prevalent conversation recently, and with the sort of—of normalizing of the topic of adoption, it begins to change the conversation around how families can be formed, what families can consist of. Certain states, like,” he gestured towards Jay. “Like Lone Keep, care a _lot_ less than they used to about sexuality and gender, care a lot less than some of the other states even now. And if that can happen from our grandparents’ generation to our parents’ generation, then if we play our cards right, if we…” he shook his head, releasing a long, slow breath. “If we _keep fighting_ , then imagine what we can do. Me and you, one person at a time, we’ll get there, and we can make the world that we all deserve. We _will_ get there, Lonnie, I promise.”

* * *

The next day, Harriet was thoroughly enjoying a Saturday afternoon nap, dozing on Jordan’s bed, wrapped in her girlfriend’s arms with sunlight streaming in through the curtains that were covering the window.

When her phone buzzed with an alert, Jordan gently smacked Harriet’s hand as she reached for it, eyes still closed as she muttered, “Don’t bother.”

Harriet kicked at Jordan’s ankle in retribution, picking her phone up anyway before she curled back up in Jordan’s arm, being the little spoon as she read the text… _from Mrs. Radcliffe?_

The woman had reached out to Harriet only twice in the last month, once to ask her opinion on who the next group of VKs should be, then again to confirm who had been chosen. Now, the text she’d sent Harriet read only, _“There’s been news concerning the next group of VKs. Please come to my office to discuss it.”_

“Weird,” Harriet said aloud.

Still clinging hopefully to sleep, Jordan asked, “What is it?”

“A, uh, text from Mrs. Radcliffe.” She sat up as Jordan groaned in protest. “I think I have to go.”

Jordan opened her eyes upon hearing the confusion in Harriet’s tone. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know.” Harriet got out of bed, throwing a black crop top on over her tank top, and reaching for her combat boots. “I hope so.”

* * *

“Well, this is either going to be really good or really bad,” Mal said what Harriet was thinking as she, Ben, Doug, Evie, Carlos, Jay, Uma, Harry, and Harriet all converged on Mrs. Radcliffe’s office.

“Since when does Mrs. Radcliffe ask _everyone_ here?” Evie asked Carlos nervously.

Carlos shrugged. “She said she had news about the next group, right? So, it’s either got to do with Dulcie, Delilah, Alexander, or Fawn. Beyond that, I don’t know any more than anybody else this time.” He opened the door to Mrs. Radcliffe’s office and started inside, only to freeze in the doorway. Worriedly, he asked, “Mom?”

Mrs. Radcliffe was sitting behind her desk, a letter in her hands and tears on her cheeks.

Harriet’s heart sank.

* * *

She felt like her chest was caving in on itself. Mal had given her one of the seats across from Mrs. Radcliffe, and Harry, of all people, was trying to tell her to put her head between her knees and breath, but she was clenching her teeth so hard they hurt, and she _couldn’t_ breathe.

She was shaking, her usual habit of not swearing in front of adults long gone as she demanded around tears, “What the hell do you mean, ‘dead?’ _How_? She was _fine_ last month! She’s—she’s five!” Her voice finally cracked, the first sob of the night forcing its way out of her throat as she insisted, “Five-year-olds don’t _die_!”

Uma came up behind Harriet’s chair, hugging her fiercely from behind, and Harriet was grateful for it, afraid she would shake apart unless someone else held her together.

Mrs. Radcliffe drew in a breath, struggling to remain composed as much as any of them were as she explained, “I received a letter from Yen Sid, just this afternoon. In it, he said that Gaston Legume has forged some sort of alliance with your father, that Gaston convinced Captain Hook and his crew to attack your ship, Miss Hook, as retribution for the attack on Gaston, Jr. last month.” There was a breath of rage from Mal and a strangled sob from Evie, and Harriet still couldn’t remember how to breathe. “From what Yen Sid could gather, Gaston and his twins wanted to… to remove Grayson Legume from the ship, to, perhaps, raise him themselves, we’re not really—”

“They wanted to take him out of his mom’s reach,” Carlos injected flatly, the fury in his eyes at odds with his painfully blank expression.

Mrs. Radcliffe nodded, continuing on a sigh, “Grayson had been napping in the captain’s quarters with Fawn and Yen, and in the chaos, no one saw one of the pirates go into the room. Fawn realized someone was coming in that shouldn’t have been, and she fought him off for the couple seconds it took for Clay Clayton to come in and rescue them. Or… to rescue the boys.” Mrs. Radcliffe reached across the desk to grip Harriet’s hand, pointing out like it should’ve helped, “She died saving someone else. And, sweet girl…” she hesitated. “The way she died, she didn’t feel any pain.”

Harriet jerked away, gagging through her tears as she realized what Mrs. Radcliffe meant. Someone on that wretched trash heap – one of her own father’s men – had decapitated a five-year-old.

She wrenched free of Uma, too, springing to her feet and running out of the school without even knowing where she was going. She was crying so hard that she didn’t manage to make it far. Her first, scattered thought was that she needed to go back to the Isle. She needed to check on her crew, to check on _Fawn_ – _maybe someone had missed something. Maybe she could beg Hades, or bring the girl here to a doctor—or… or…_

 _They had decapitated_ her, Harriet realized anew. _There was no coming back from that, not even at the behest of the god of the Underworld._


	31. Chapter 31

She didn’t make it to anywhere near the Isle. Falling to her knees in moss, Harriet vaguely realized she’d come to the forest, to the spot where Jordan had brought her for their first date. She vomited where the picnic blanket had been laid out and started sobbing all over again.

* * *

Harriet had no idea how long she sat in the forest. She’d flung her phone away from her when it wouldn’t stop ringing and beeping, and even though she eventually stopped crying, she couldn’t find the energy stand up, to go retrieve the device that had been a gift from the Darlings.

The sun was setting when a branch crunched behind her – _not a VK, they would’ve stepped around the giveaway without even meaning to. But very few people would’ve thought to look for her here._

“Hey.”

Harriet couldn’t even bring herself to look at Jordan as the other girl sat beside her where she was leaning against a tree trunk. Jordan put Harriet’s phone in her lap as Harriet said, “I don’t wanna talk.”

“Okay. Then I’m just going to be here with you anyway.”

Jordan put her arms around Harriet, Harriet put her head on Jordan’s shoulder, and the girls watched the sunset together in silence.

* * *

The Darlings came. Over the next few days, Mrs. Darling took Harry and Jane to a batting cage where he could hit things to his heart’s content while Mr. Darling stayed in and watched movies with Harriet and Danny that she would never remember. Mr. Darling taught Harry wrestling, like he’d learned during his army days, and Mrs. Darling made tea and listened to Harriet say anything and everything that came to mind while Danny napped. Harriet made the decision with her foster parents that Harry wasn’t the only one who needed counseling, and Mrs. Darling set up Harriet’s first session.

When the time came for them to return to Little London, Harriet hugged Danny a little tighter and a little longer than she might’ve otherwise before she helped him buckle into his car seat.

Every evening, Jordan took her out to watch the sunset. On Sunday night, Harriet remembered how to talk to another human being. Monday night, she turned her face into the curve of Jordan’s neck, wincing away from singular moment of brilliant orange light right before the sun set, gasping in a full breath, and she remembered how to breathe.

* * *

“Sweetheart,” Fairy Godmother wasn’t quite twisting her hands, but she didn’t like what Harriet was purposing. “It’s only Tuesday. Are you sure you want to go back to class already? You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do,” Harriet tried to make her understand. “My father, his crew, the Legumes, they don’t get to win. Fawn was so close to coming here, and if she can’t do that, then I will live my life here to the best of my ability – to do her proud, and to spite the people that killed her by doing far more than they’ll ever get the opportunity to. Right now, that starts with returning to school.”

Fairy Godmother’s mouth twisted into something that was somehow both a smile and a frown as she patted Harriet’s arm, her gentleness and her gaze both saying she still expected her to shatter like glass underneath her touch. “Alright, sweetheart. But if it’s too much for me, you’ll let me know, won’t you?”

“I will,” Harriet promised. “But it won’t be.”

* * *

And it wasn’t too much. It was _horribly_ hard the first week, to go back to school, to go to her first counseling session, but the lady was nice, at least, and Harriet opened up to her, just a little, because that was the point, right?

The second week after Fawn’s death, Jordan did or said something – Harriet didn’t even remember what – and she had screamed at her roommate, at her girlfriend, loudly enough that Uma had come in and told her to shut up. Harriet had fallen onto her bed in tears, sobbing apologies, and she and Jordan had talked through it. She’d taken full advantage of her girlfriend’s unisex name and told the counselor about the fight, too.

The third week, Jane had bumped into her in the hall, one of the first times that a student had interacted with her since news had trickled down about a difficult-to-swallow death on the Isle, and she’d reacted to the pitying look in the fae’s eyes by snapping at her sharply enough that Harriet almost hoped it made Jane cry.

A month in, though, people started to forget to look at Harriet like she was breakable, and Harriet started to forget to lie to her counselor about Jordan being a girl. When she realized her mistake, Harriet had frozen, uncertain of what was supposed to happen next in situations like this, but the counselor had only smiled a little dryly, reminded her that Auradon Prep was a very exclusive school with fairly well-known students, and there were only so many “Jordans” to be found among its students. Then she’d talked to the counselor about all of _that_ , and she left the office wearing the first smile she had in a month.

The fifth week, Prince Aziz had teased Harry about something from across the lunch table, and Harriet had laughed without thinking about it.

She’d wanted to capture that moment in time, sitting there at a courtyard table, when it felt like relearning how to breathe yet again. When she glanced sideways and saw Jordan laughing, too, her expression the same as when Harriet had first fallen in love with her … she wanted to recapture that moment when she fell in love all over again – this time with the less-than-perfect, still-pretty-great life that she’d been offered on the mainland.

She’d settled for reminding herself that there would be more moments like this one, sitting in the sun with her friends, feeling as light as the air they were breathing. She’d settled for realizing that she really, really was going to be okay.

Time kept passing; the world spun on.

Harriet went to school, did her homework, went out with Jordan and with her friends, took on a babysitting gig, bleached her hair, cut it off, and begged Dizzy for help before it was all said and done. She helped the next group of VKs adjust, joined the conversation about who should come after that, and helped Carlos write bios for the VKs waiting to be chosen from the Isle. She started fencing classes, decided she knew enough of it already, and took up photography instead.

She was seventeen, finally allowing herself to make stupid teenage mistakes, and loving every minute of it.


	32. Chapter 32

It was late November, and she’d just finished a sword-fighting match with Audrey in the gym when the princess surprised her by asking as they walked out together, “What do you think Uma would like for Christmas?”

Harriet did a doubletake. “I… have no idea. We didn’t really… do Christmas on the Isle. I guess I hadn’t thought about it.” _At all, for anyone._ “I probably should, though. Hey, ah, Jordan’s sort of your assistant, right?”

“Sort of, yeah.”

“What do you think she would like?”

“I have no idea,” Audrey parroted Harriet’s words back to her. She considered for a second before blurting, “Jordan’s _weird_.”

“Hey!”

“No, not like that. Not in a necessarily _bad_ way, but… She’s friendly with everybody, but she’s one of those people that let’s very few people get to _know_ her, you know? I guess you just lucked out that way.”

 _She would accept that as true_ , Harriet decided, dropping the instinct to defend her girlfriend to suggest, “If you really want to know what to get Uma, you should ask Harry.”

“And _you_ ,” Audrey pointed out. “Could probably ask Aziz.” She shrugged, adding, “Or, if you’re really at a loss, you could just ask Jordan directly.”

“Then why don’t you ask Uma?” Harriet asked.

“Yeah,” Audrey rolled her eyes. “Because _that’s_ going to happen.”

 _Apparently, the famous roommates Shrimpy and Bubblegum weren’t_ quite _to that level of friendship yet._

Harriet kept her thoughts to herself with a smile and said goodbye as she parted ways with Audrey.

* * *

A couple weeks later, though Audrey had been unwilling to take her own advice, Harriet finally caved to it and asked Jordan as they changed into their pajamas. “What do you want for Christmas?”

“I dunno. What do you want for Christmas?”

“Jordan, come on.” Harriet pouted dramatically, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s bare waist as she said, “You’ve got to give me something. I have a couple of ideas, but nobody’s being all that helpful, and I’ve never even gotten Christmas presents for people before this year, so it was suggested that I come to the source.”

“I am _sure_ that whatever you get for me, I will love it because it’s from you.”

“You’re useless to me,” Harriet muttered, taking a step back as she continued to fake pouting.

Jordan pulled her pajama top on before she kissed Harriet’s pout away. “Let me ask you this, then: what are you going to get for _yourself_?”

Harriet paused, narrowing her eyes at Jordan as she tried to decide if she was being teased or not. “I didn’t think you got things for yourself. I thought that was the whole point – giving to other people.”

“Well, it is, but if you _were_ going to get something for yourself for Christmas, what would you get?”

 _She was definitely only asking because she was trying to pry information from her,_ Harriet determined, lying down in her bed as she objected, “Really? You’re not going to give me ideas, but you want ideas.” She bit back a smile, shaking her head as she repeated, “Useless to me.”

“What?” Jordan asked innocently, turning off the light and crawling into Harriet’s bed too. “You deserve something for Christmas.”

“Well, so do you!”

* * *

Harriet had never told Ben, but part of what he’d said to Lonnie when he’d gone to the Lavender Lounge had stuck with her, even months later. _“If we keep fighting, then imagine what we can do. Me and you, one person at a time, we’ll get there, and we can make the world that we all deserve.”_ That had stuck with her, and helped her, in some way, to get through Fawn’s death. Even on the days when she’d been too tired for it, she had to keep fighting, even if the fight had been something simple like whether to get up and go to school.

Now, though, when the grief didn’t punch her in the gut nearly as often, when there was snow on the ground and huge wreaths hanging from every turret of the school… there were still things to keep fighting for. The VKs, for one thing, and the kids who congregated in the Lavender Lounge for another.

And for the past weeks, Jordan’s strange, innocent question had struck her in a different way, swirling together with Ben’s words in her head. _“If you were going to get something for yourself for Christmas, what would you get?”_

There was nothing she would get herself, she knew that, especially since she had it on good – and extremely accidental – authority from Harry that the Darlings had bought her a better camera. _But there was something she was pretty sure she wanted to do…_

* * *

She lost her nerve no less than five times over Christmas break with the Darlings, loathe to disrupt the achingly normal, half-magical days of decorating a tree, baking cookies, opening presents, playing games, watching movies, and making snowmen. _This was her very first Christmas, and Harry’s too, and she didn’t want to ruin it for anyone_ , she reasoned every time, even when they asked her if she was alright, even when she started taking nightly phone calls from Jordan in her room when Mr. and Mrs. Darling began to notice their frequency.

Somehow, she wasn’t surprised, though, when, on hers and Harry’s last night before returning to Auradon Prep, there was a knock on her bedroom door. _They were_ really _good parents like that._

“Can we come in?” Mrs. Darling called softly.

“Yeah.”

Mrs. Darling smiled softly at her in the muted light of the electric candles, letting her husband into the room, too, before she shut the room.

“Okay, kiddo,” Mr. Darling said. “Why don’t you tell us about this mysterious caller of yours?”

He was trying to make it a genuine question, and though he’d proven to be an endlessly kind man, much like Jane, his daughter, he didn’t beat around the bush either.

Harriet shrugged. “It’s just my roommate from school.”

“If it’s your roommate—” Mr. Darling began skeptically.

His wife spoke over him, asking curiously, “Is it?”

Harriet grabbed her phone from the nightstand, held it out to her. “Do you want to check my phone?” When Mrs. Darling hesitated, Harriet pulled up the call history herself and showed her, keeping her tone purposefully casual. “Look. I don’t mind. Every night, it’s just Jordan.”

Mrs. Darling glanced at the phone screen, then looked back at Harriet, studying her thoughtfully. She sat down on the bed, cross-legged at the foot of it, arranging her skirts as Harriet put her phone back on the nightstand. “You do know,” Mrs. Darling began after a moment. “That Edward and I _chose_ you, right?”

“What?” Harriet asked, suddenly completely unsure where this was going.


	33. Chapter 33

“You and Harry… we _chose_ to bring you into our house, into our home, and to, as much as you would let us, raise you as our own. We all know Harry had a difficult time being here when you first stayed with us… but now that he’s calmed down, I’ve – we’ve, Edward and I – realized something during this visit.”

“What?” Harriet asked obligingly.

“You’re still holding something back from us… aren’t you? When you’re here, you’re a _good_ girl, a _quiet_ girl, a _helpful_ girl – which we appreciate – but as long as you are those things, no one looks too closely at you, do they?”

Harriet didn’t answer, was afraid that saying the wrong thing – or maybe anything at all – would make this whole beautiful Christmas blow up in her face, would come with far bigger repercussions than anyone was prepared for, least of all her and Harry.

Mr. Darling pointed out, taking over where his wife left off, “The thing is, if we wanted kids only when they were good, and quiet, and helpful,” he shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “We wouldn’t have any kids left at all, biological _or_ foster. When Mrs. Radcliffe called us, asked us if we’d be willing to take you and Harry in, we said ‘yes,’ we _chose you_ – _after_ we read your files, by the way.” He sat on the edge of the bed beside Mrs. Darling, thinking back. “The file said that Harry had excessive anger and authority issues, among other things, that there was a high likelihood that he could benefit from… some version of medical help – pills, therapy—”

“Both,” Harriet offered dryly, just so they could at least feel like she was participating in the conversation.

“ _Your_ file,” Mr. Darling informed her. “Was a lot shorter… but a different sort of... I don’t even want to say ‘noteworthy,’ but I’m going to.”

Harriet looked at him in alarm. “Why?”

“Don’t quote me on this,” Mr. Darling said. “But I don’t _think_ that anyone besides Mrs. Radcliffe has open access to the letters that Yen Sid sends her, and some of what Yen Sid sends her doesn’t make it to the electronic files on certain VKs; it just stays in her personal notes for if it becomes relevant to potential foster families.

“One of the things that she noted Yen Sid had mentioned about you – something I don’t think any of your classmates realize we’re aware of – is something that was politely put as a ‘lack of natural affection.’”

Her heart racing, Harriet could guess well enough what that meant, but she wanted – no, she _had_ – to be sure. “What do you mean? What’s that mean?”

Mr. Darling looked unsure if she was purposefully playing dense or not, so he said far more bluntly, with a strange smile, “Gay, Harriet. Yen Sid was… pretty sure you were – are – gay.”

“Not that he particularly had any right to pass that judgement on someone, about something so personal,” Mrs. Darling commented, soft but pointed as she glanced at Mr. Darling.

“Maybe not,” Mr. Darling admitted. “But here’s my point. I served in the army, Harriet, and there were a number of guys – my brothers in arms – who were in the army _at least_ in part because that was where they could find other men like them. Men who would have their backs and maybe their hearts, and share their beds and their tents, and make some version of a life with them like that. I’m not going to lie, because it took me time, and I lost friends when I was on either side of this discussion, but I came to understand that those guys who kissed each other would take a bullet for me just as easily as the guys who kissed the photos of female sweethearts that they hung above their cots.

“What I’m trying to say is that I don’t care – _this family_ does not care – whether you kiss guys or girls, or both, or none at all…” He met her gaze, the look in his eyes suddenly reminding her of the look in her mother’s eyes the last time she had tucked Harriet into bed a decade ago. “Because we already know that you’re the sort of person who would take a bullet for us. Do you understand?”

Harriet swallowed, nodded. “I was going to tell you,” she blurted. “This trip, I was going to tell you. I tried, but I…”

“We thought so,” Mrs. Darling admitted when Harriet trailed off. “That’s why we came to you. I hope that’s okay. We just didn’t want you to struggle needlessly with this.”

“And…” _She really didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but she also wanted to gush about how great her girlfriend was. If the idiot boys got to, why shouldn’t she take the opportunity when she had it?_ “And Jordan _is_ my roommate, she is – I didn’t lie – but she’s also my girlfriend. My really awesome, amazing, beautiful, brilliant—” Their growing smiles made her stop short, and instead she rushed to assure them, “And I was going to tell you that, too. I want to tell you all about her. But I swear we’re being perfectly responsible and respectful, and—”

“As much as two teenagers who are already living together can be,” Mr. Darling pointed out with an arched eyebrow, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Harriet paused, met his gaze with a line of confusion between her brows. “What are you afraid of? Grandchildren?”

He snorted, and Mrs. Darling put her head in her hands, laughing quietly. “With everything else that your file said about you, Harriet, maybe so,” he joked, _referencing the kids she’d taken in._

Harriet shook her head. “For all that Auradon needs to change, most of the real adults are decent enough that I don’t have to look after other kids anymore, not like on my ship. There are things to do here, similar causes to fight for, maybe, but I don’t have to be anyone’s mother anymore, and I’m okay with that.”

“I’m glad,” Mrs. Darling admitted. “We weren’t sure how you felt about that, when you first came to us.”

“ _I_ wasn’t sure how I felt about it when I first came here. But I think I’m better for it, now. Better for the fact that I did look after other people, but also better for the fact that I get to look after myself now. Now I can spend my time helping where I can when it’s needed, and that feels a lot more manageable than constantly mothering a ship of schoolkids.”

Especially when she was now surrounded by the people that she was – the VKs who were here, the Darlings, Jordan, her new mainland-born friends, her teachers. Kindness made things easier, and kind people made things better.

Ben’s words rang again in her ears as she looked at Mr. and Mrs. Darling.

 _“Me and you, one person at a time, we’ll get there, and we can make the world that we all deserve.”_

Tonight, she’d been assured that there were two more people on her side, and that made it that much easier to get up in the morning, ready to fight and help all over again wherever it was needed.

She and Mrs. Darling were regarding each other, both in their own minds, both a little in awe of the other, and Harriet didn’t notice until Mrs. Darling asked, “What?”

“Thank you,” Harriet said impulsively. “For having us here, for taking us in. I know it’s not easy.”

Harriet watched Mrs. Darling’s expression, watched her heart melt at the simple sincerity of that statement. _She hadn’t meant for it to be a big deal._

“Thank you for being willing to stay with us,” Mrs. Darling answered. “We’re glad you’re here.”

Harriet smiled. “Me, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus we have reached the end of this story. Hopefully you guys liked it! Feel free to leave comments about this story, or suggestions for other things you would like to see covered in this series.  
> If it feels a little incomplete in spots, like I'm still not tying up plot threads, right now that's a little intentional because the next story ties pretty heavily into the events in this story, I feel... and that story will be Harry's.   
> I'm going to be honest, in the series-long outline I have for this series, I didn't plan to have an installment for Harry; I planned on just having all the events happen through Harriet's POV, but I didn't like the way that worked for all the scenes, so, as it turns out, Harry's story is next up!


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